


Caesium

by iSnaprack



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:13:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27407122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iSnaprack/pseuds/iSnaprack
Summary: "Took you long enough." The last four words of Ryoji Kaji. But what if they weren't? After the timeline diverges, a host of ever so subtle changes leads to SEELE's plans becoming impossible, and so they adopt a new route, bringing characters both new and old into a headlong collision for the fate of humanity... and those they love.
Relationships: Ikari Shinji/Souryuu Asuka Langley, Kaji Ryouji/Katsuragi Misato
Kudos: 10





	1. Ever-so-subtle

**EVANGELION - CAESIUM**

**Chapter 1**

**“How did it get so late so soon?” - Dr. Seuss**

Ryoji Kaji parked his car between a rusty minivan and a blue sports car, expertly guiding it in a perfect parallel park. He turned his head to the back seat of the car, and looked at the manilla folder that lay there. He picked it up, softly, and let his finger glide along the edge. There was a white sticker on the tab of the folder, written on with a permanent marker. Smudged slightly, but still easy enough to read, the kanji spelled out “Instrumentality.” Although he had heard the whispers about the project for months, he finally had the information in his hands, but he couldn’t bear to read it. Not by himself, at least.

The door of the Elan swung swiftly on its hinges, and Ryoji stood up and closed the door behind him. He patted his pockets, making sure he had his wallet and his keys, then moved around his car on his way to the meeting point. He stopped right as he stepped onto the sidewalk, surveying the area. A playground was nearby, completely empty, the rusty swings creaking and swaying loudly, and the slides were rusted away.  _ An unfortunate result of the 14th Angel’s destruction _ , thought Ryoji to himself, saddened by the state of Tokyo-3.

He looked back into his car, and his eyes strayed to the passenger seat. His handgun sat there, laying unloaded in the holster. He hadn’t planned on taking it. He knew what his fate was to be, yet a part of him yearned to deny it. Giving in, Kaji took the weapon from the holster and laid it to rest on the dash, then struggled to get the concealed holster on. He finally managed to slip the small leather holster on the inside of his belt, and opened the glovebox. He grabbed two of the slender metal magazines that laid inside, and placed one in his pocket. He fit the other one into the grip of the pistol, and gave it a slap. He pulled back the slide, checking inside to make sure it was loaded properly, then he flicked the release. The quiet  _ snap  _ of the slide locking into place echoed out into the abandoned street, magnified by the silent void he found himself standing in. He placed the American-made pistol in the holster, then began walking to his destination.

As he strode through the playground, Kaji couldn’t help but look around at the sadness the war NERV fought against the Angels brought to the people who lived in Tokyo-3.  _ A hedgehog’s dilemma _ , he thought quietly to himself as he passed the outside edge of the playground and began climbing the short set of metal stairs to his destination.  _ Just as NERV grows closer to saving them, there’s less people to save. _

As he reached the top of the staircase, he turned through the small outline of a door set into the metal wall, and found himself in a small hallway, with two large fans bringing the cold air from outside and blowing it into the power plant. Kaji walked cautiously, checking to see if he was the first one here. A quick glimpse through the small space showed him that he was, and so he walked over to one of the railings next to one of the fans, and let the cold air wash over him. The fans made almost no noise as they sliced through the air. He knew this plant helped supply this entire section of the city with power, and these fans were high-tech, even though they didn’t look it. He looked off to his left, fondly wishing he could get back into his car and leave this place behind. But he couldn’t. Not unless he wished to anger SEELE.

As he stared longingly at his bright red Elan sitting on the street, knowing it might never start again, he heard a door open quietly in front of him. Taking one last glance at the object he spent two whole years in college saving up for, Kaji turned to face the door in front of him. He saw two tall figures walking towards him, wearing military gear. One wore a gas mask and a heavy ballistic vest over a creased and wrinkled cargo shirt, while the second wore a simple white dress shirt, collar popped up, with a black tie pinned behind the lightweight vest he was wearing. The first was armed with a rifle, while the second was armed with only a pistol. They both walked until they were about three meters away from him, then the man wielding the rifle stopped, while the man in white took a few paces more. Ryoji didn’t need to look at the purple badge on the man’s shirt to know who sent him, but he glimpsed at it anyway. The seven eyes, overlaid on top of a triangle, seemed to look into his soul. He lifted his eyes, and looked at the man in front of him, who had now lifted his pistol so that it was pointed at Kaji’s head. He met the man’s gaze.

“Took you long enough.” said Ryoji, deciding now was not the time to give into fear. He closed his eyes. A thundering crash echoed out from in front of him, and Kaji tensed. His breaths came in shallow gasps for a second, but no pain came. He opened his eyes, and saw a smoking barrel of a rifle. The man in white lay face down in a pool of blood, a gaping hole visible in the back of his head. He looked up at the soldier carrying the rifle, who moved his hands to remove his gas mask, revealing a shock of blonde hair Kaji had never thought he’d see again.

The man was young, with a handsome but narrow face. His bright green eyes shone out like beacons from his tanned face, and a smattering of freckles graced his lower face. A face altogether too familiar to Kaji.

“Ryoma?” he sputtered, in shock that he wasn’t dead, but not out of it enough to not recognize his old friend.

“You very much owe me one, Ryoji.” said Ryoma with a chuckle, as he slung the rifle over his back. “Put that on top of the dozen you owe me from college.”

“How? I thought…didn’t you… JSSDF?” stammered Ryoji, clearly speechless for the first time in ages.

“You know that SEELE controls most of Japan. Many of the JSSDF elites are in their pockets.” said Ryoma, clearly not bothered by the dead body laying in between them, nor by the shocked nature of his old college friend. “You’re just lucky I called in a favor when you arrived in Tokyo-3 months ago to have your name scrubbed out of my bio. I knew you would pull something, Ryoji-san.”

“Well, thank you.” said Kaji, glad that he had regained at least some of his composure, but not enough to be back to his old self. After all, an hour ago he had thought he was coming here to die. “How did you know that they were sending someone to kill me?”

“It was an accident, honestly.” Ryoma said, incredulity creeping into his voice. “I walked in one of my captains complaining about having to escort an agent for the Japanese government. I asked him what for, and he said that apparently the agent had a meeting with a man named Kaji to ‘iron him out.’ I told him I would take his place, since I was free that day, and now here I am.

Kaji couldn’t believe that he wasn’t dead, but he felt no strong elation either. He knew SEELE would get to him eventually. They always saw to their enemies. He kneeled down, and patted down the dead agent until he located the man’s wallet. He flipped it open, and pulled out a black ID card.

“What are you doing, Kaj?” Ryoma inquired, using the nickname he christened for Ryoji the first time they ever met.

“Finding our ticket” Kaji said, busily scribbling down the numbers on the ID.

“Our ticket to what?”

“Our lives.” responded Kaji.

* * *

The red car rolled to a stop inside an open garage, as Kaji turned the key to shut down the engine. He got out cautiously, as did Ryoma. He had taken off his military gear in the passenger sheet while instructing Ryoji on where to go, and now simply wore a black t-shirt with cargo pants and combat books. His rifle and the rest of his gear sat in a duffle bag in the back of Ryoji’s car. He still carried his pistol on his hip, and as the garage door quietly creaked shut, he drew it from the holster and moved towards the door out of the garage.

“I thought you said this place was safe, Ryoma-san.” hissed Kaji, clearly confused as to why the blonde-haired soldier had drawn his weapon, as he reluctantly did the same.

“I’m sure it is,” responded Ryoma, “but when playing games against Seele, one can never be too careful.”

The door opened with a creak, and Ryoma went inside. They entered into a somewhat spacious living room, and although it was darkened by the closed curtains, it was still bright enough for Ryoji to see that it was well-furnished. He followed his college friend as the two of them cleared the attached kitchen and bathroom, then two bedrooms.

“Alright, I think we’re safe.” Ryoma whispered, and he placed his handgun back into his holster. Ryoji did the same, and the two of them returned to the living room, where he sat down in a leather chair. It stuck to him unpleasantly, but before he could move to a different seat, Ryoma sat down in the seat opposite him.

“Well, Ryoji, pat yourself on the back. You live to defy the Council another day.” said Ryoma, a hint of humor in his voice.

“If I keep doing this, they might send a real soldier after me.” retorted Kaji, and the tension dissolved as the two men laughed together at the mockery.

“Yeah, well make sure to thank any real soldiers you come across for putting a bullet in your head” chortled Ryoma, as he reached down into a nightstand and pulled out two glasses, and a bottle of wine with a purple label. Purple. The color of her hair…

Ryoji fought back tears, trying not to let an outpouring of grief be one of the first reactions to his life being extended once again. Ryoma offered him one of the glasses, and Kaji drank deeply. He could tell it was cheap, but he didn’t care. He emptied the entire glass, and reached for the bottle. He filled his glass to the top again, but this time began to sip it.

“Don’t go getting tipsy on me already.” Ryoma chided. “We’ve still got to formulate a plan on what to do next.”

“Wait a minute,” Kaji retorted, “You shot a SEELE agent in the head and you have no idea what you’re going to do next? Seems like poor planning.”

“Planning was never really my strong point.” responded Ryoma. “I made it to Major on the merits of having a loud voice and many years of good service.”

“Can’t argue with that. You always did fail your business homework.” Kaji said, reminiscing about how easy it used to be back then, when they didn’t have to worry about the fate of the world resting on the shoulders of a handful of scared children.

“You know as well as I do that Professor Kimura failed me on purpose. I was seeing his daughter at the time, and he wasn’t a fan of my gentlemanly ways.” Ryoma responded, and he took a deep swig of the cheap wine. “I might have failed business, but from the look on your face I think you know exactly what kind of business we need to get into.

Letting out a deep breath, Ryoji pulled the small notepad out of his pocket, the name and numbers of the SEELE agent’s ID card written upon it. He set it on the table, then set his cell phone and handgun next to it.

“I may not have been SEELE’s main enemy, but after they find out about this, I just might skyrocket up the list.” Ryoji said, attempting to make a joke, but he instead sounded scathingly sarcastic.  _ At least Gendo Ikari’s existence prevents me from ever taking the top spot _ , thought Kaji, trying not to indulge in the intermittent loathing he had for the commander. “There’s only one way we get out of this alive, and it’s the longest shot I’ve ever heard of.”

Ryoma scooted forward in his chair, and put a hand to his chin. “And that is?”

Kaji prepared himself for the ridiculousness of what he was about to say. “We take down SEELE. Or at very least, the Council.”

Shockingly, Ryoma didn’t laugh, but simply looked at Kaji for a moment, then replied. “Taking down SEELE is impossible.” He paused for a moment, then added. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t try.”

Confused by how accepting the man who Kaji once, hell even still, considered his best friend was of his hare-brained scheme, Ryoji took another sip of his wine. “You’d seriously put your life on the line for me? I know you saved me, but two of us against all of SEELE? Most would say even impossible doesn’t sufficiently describe the idea.”

“I’ve heard crazier things. Done crazier things too” Ryoma replied, as he stared into the depths of his glass. “I haven’t seen you in a couple years, Kaji, but you’re still the best friend I have. The only friend, I may add.”

“You know how likely you are to die?” Kaji asked, although he already knew the answer Ryoma would likely give.

“I’ve made my choice, Ryoji. I was dead the moment I assigned myself to to escort that agent. It’s just a matter of when.”

Ryoji couldn’t argue with that. He had an inkling of what to do next, but would need some time to figure it out.

“Do you have a laptop I could borrow, Ryoma?” Kaji asked, as he let his gaze fall on the notepad laying on the coffee table in front of him.

“Yeah, of course I do. What do you need it for?” Ryoma inquired, as he assessed the look of determination on Kaji’s face.

“I know SEELE is hiding many things. But I’ve got a suspicion I need to confirm.” Ryoji said, as he scribbled down a few more notes onto the pad. “If it turns out to be correct, we’ll know what to do next.”

“Then I’ll grab my laptop, and get started on dinner.” Ryoma replied. “It’s going to be a long night.”

* * *

It had only been a few hours since Ryoji Kaji almost lost his life, and already the memory of the incident had faded into the back of his mind. He was currently busy typing away on Ryoma’s laptop, with a half-eaten slice of pizza and a bottle of cola on the nightstand next to him. He decided to drink pop instead of more wine since he needed to focus on his work, and to his surprise the soda was much better than the cheap wine he had been drinking earlier. Ryoma told him that he had the stuff imported from America, and that it was one of the few creature comforts he indulged in.

“The soda they have here in Japan just isn’t quite the same.” Ryoma had said with a laugh as he cracked open the lid of the blue soda bottle. Now, Ryoma was busy with something upstairs, though what was anyone's guess. Kaji turned his focus back to the computer. He had used the Agent’s ID to access the NERV mainframe and from there was reverse hacking his way into the SEELE data system. It was slow going, as he was taking every precaution to not get caught, not to mention Ryoji had never been particularly speedy at this. Hyuga had shown him a few techniques and backdoors that had been useful on occasion, but SEELE’s security was far too high for something like that to work. Unfortunately, Kaji was stuck reading through the lines of code one by one to try and patch together an access code, something that could take another few hours if they were lucky, and potentially a week if they weren’t.

As he rubbed the tiredness from his eyes, Ryoji Kaji grabbed the bottle of cola and took a big swig, thankful for the coolness as it soothed his aching throat. He looked back down at the laptop, looking for anything that could possibly give him an idea on where or what he and Ryoma needed to do next. A password, an access code, anything. He just needed something. As he continued to absentmindedly scroll, he saw an entry that intrigued him.

**Rk_asset.bio = deleted - 2015.x.x - AUTH Ikari G.**

_ That’s my bio,  _ thought Kaji to himself,  _ and Commander Ikari deleted it _ . It had scarcely been more than six or seven hours since the incident at the power plant, and Kaji knew there was almost no way the Commander could know about his passing. Sure, a Section 2 Agent could’ve tracked him, but the likelihood was ridiculous. He had been losing followers from NERV, SEELE, and the German government for years, and he had become an expert. No, this was something else.  _ The Commander knew SEELE was going to have me killed. That had to have been the case. _

As he pondered in thought for a second, he shook away his musings and looked down at the lines that followed. Most of them were meaningless drivel, strings of code generated by the MAJI confirming the deletion of the file, but at the end of the string he found what he was looking for.

**Rk_asset.biometrics = deleted - 2015.x.x - AUTH Akagi R.**

**Access - confirmed - pass - confirmed - hashed - following**

Kaji grinned; he may not be an expert hacker, but one thing he did know for sure was that NERV’s security was top notch. They would never use anything less than the maximum possible encryption to protect their precious data, but Ryoji knew when he first arrived at Tokyo-3 he might need the keys. So he went to Ritsuko, and wrapped his arms around her in a sarcastic flirting manner. Of course, Misato had shown up and put a stop to his good fun, but he wasn’t just there to frustrate her. He had glanced over Ritsuko’s shoulder, at a sticky note attached to one of her monitors. In a swarm of yellow, a handful of them were orange, and it was on one of the orange sticky notes that a code was written hastily, with more writing below it. “Re-encrypt hash - use code ‘emerald’” it said, and Kaji knew that he at least had something back then. He never knew it might help him today.

He took great care typing his inquiry into the command line; one misclick or slip-up, and Ritsuko would be rudely awoken by the fact that someone was trying to breach into the MAGI’s data files from a small house on the edge of Tokyo-3, and then it would be over before they had a chance. Kaji typed the last handful of brackets, then took a deep breath. He pressed the enter key, and instead of flashing a bunch of codes and alerts, it simply returned with a single line of text.

**hash key []**

Nervous, but with no other options, Kaji painstakingly typed in the code, making sure to format it correctly. He checked it over twice, making sure that it was right. Mistakes couldn’t be allowed, not now. Not now that they had decided to take on the Serpent itself. After spending a few minutes checking over the code to make sure it was absolutely perfect, Kaji pressed the enter button nervously, for the second time It worked, and the numbers and letters dissolved and reformatted until he was left with a password string he assumed belonged to either the Commander or Ritsuko. Breathing a sigh of relief, he set the laptop down while it decrypted the hash, and went upstairs to check up on Ryoma.

As he entered the upstairs living room, he stopped a few feet in, and cleared his throat. The room had a large leather couch and two smaller leather chairs, as well as a few beanbags. There was a large coffee table, and arranged across it was an impressive array of firearms, some that Ryoji had never even seen before. Ryoma was cleaning the barrel of a strange looking weapon, a black and tan rifle with a strange device on the muzzle and the magazine tilted off several degrees. After hearing Kaji, he set the strange rifle down, and set the cloth on top of it.

“Did you find something?” Ryoma asked, cleaning some of the dirt and grease from his hands with a napkin.

“I did, and I think it might just be big.” Ryoji responded, then he chuckled. “However, you neglected to mention that you found a stash of weapons that would make NERV’s security blush with envy, Ryoma-san.”

Ryoma let out a small bark that sounded almost like a laugh, and he tossed the napkin onto the couch. “These are all Russian weapons. Not the kind the JSSDF usually uses, but as a Major I get my selections of weaponry for my unit, and these weapons are reliable as it gets.”

Kaji gestured to the one he had been cleaning. “Apparently, the Russians are just as much in the habit of making abominations as Gendo Ikari.”

“Don’t say it too loud, poor Nikonov might just roll over in his grave.” said Ryoma, though who this Nikonov person may have been was lost on Kaji. “Besides, it isn’t even the most impressive weapon I own.”

“I’d expect no less from you, Ryo.” said Kaji with a chuckle, and he gestured to Ryoma to stand up and follow him. As they came down the stairs, Ryoma strayed into the kitchen to grab a slice of pizza, and quickly returned to stand over Kaji’s shoulder. The string had decrypted itself now, and a passcode was left blinking on the screen.

**Hash decrypted - [PANDORA]**

Kaji’s brow furrowed. He knew almost every one of the higher ups at nerve, and the name Pandora wasn’t involved with any of them. It was none of their code names or usernames, and he couldn’t think of anyone that the name was tied to. He jabbed away at the keyboard for a few seconds, then did a search function to find the login location. He entered the code, and the laptop changed to show a massive digital archive, with a name beeping at the top.

**Welcome, Y. Ikari**

“Yui Ikari… is she of some relation to the Commander?” Ryoma asked, as he moved from standing over Ryoji’s shoulder and instead sat down on the couch next to him.

“Yes. It’s his wife.”

“Won’t she be outraged if she finds someone hacked into her account?”

Ryoji let out a deep sigh.

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” he said, and he saw recognition bloom on Ryoma’s face as he realized what he meant. The blonde soldier returned to nursing his bottle of soda, and Ryoji started browsing the archive.

“What exactly are you looking for?” Ryoma inquired, as he took the last swig of his bottle, then tossed it in a waste receptacle.

“I know someone in the depths of SEELE. Someone that might be convinced to turn, but I have no way of getting into contact with him without access to these databanks.” Kaji said, not looking up from his computer.

“You really think you could get someone inside SEELE to turn traitor? They’re the most powerful organization on this planet, with the possible exception of NERV.” Ryoma commented, and although he seemed almost inquisitive, Kaji could hear that his friend was having trouble believing him.

“I don’t just think so.” said Ryoji, as he picked up his cell phone and began dialing a number.

“I know so.”

* * *

Whew! We’re through the first chapter! It’s not terribly long compared to some other fanfiction stories, especially in the NGE community. Ryoma is an interesting character to write, as in some respects he’s exactly like Kaji, yet there are many subtle differences. I chose to use a new character, instead of finding someone from the anime, as I wasn’t sure if I could find someone that fit the bill properly to be Kaji’s best friend, since other than Ritsuko and Misato, he was never described as having any friends in college. Regardless, the next chapter will begin with us in the United States, though not from Ryoji’s point of view. I’m drawing a bit from Fanon, as the “Seele Dudes” don’t have real names, but the fans were kind enough to come up with some. Enjoy! :)


	2. Cracks Begin To Show

**Chapter 2**

**“Don’t waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.” - Paulo Coelho**

Although he was the busiest man in all of America, Theodore Cassin was not one to balk from his luxuries simply because the world was going to hell. He sat in a cloth chair on his balcony, a glass of bourbon on the table next to him, taking long drags from a cigar. He watched as the smoke curled up into the air, then set the cigar down in the ashtray and took a sip from his glass. As he did, he saw movement out of the corner of his eyes, and averted his gaze from the rising midday sun to his secretary, who was holding a clipboard in her hands. A faint buzzing could be heard, and as he tilted his head she handed him a small mobile phone.

“I wasn’t supposed to be receiving any calls today. The next Council meeting isn’t for another week yet.” Teddy said, a note of uncharacteristic inquisitiveness in his voice.

“I know, Mr. Cassin, but this being your private phone, I figured you would want to take the call. Whomever it may be.” his secretary replied curtly, and she walked back inside the house. He grunted, and looked at the number on the phone. It wasn’t one he recognized. He pressed the accept call button, and held the phone to his ear.

“I don’t know who you are, but you shouldn’t have this number.” grunted Theodore, and he took a big sip of bourbon while he waited for a response.

“Now Chairmen Cassin, is that the proper way to respond to a man that has cheated death?” said a familiar voice on the line, and Theodore spit out his bourbon in shock. He quickly looked around, and seeing nobody, shut the doors to his balcony, then sat back down.

“Ryoji?!” he exclaimed, making no attempt to hide the shock in his voice.

“Ah, so you do remember me, Theodore-sama. Well, as you can tell, I’m not dead. You should really send more than two people after me if that was what you wanted to accomplish. It’s clear to me, then, that it wasn’t your objective.” Ryoji responded, ending his statement with a faint chuckle.

“What happened to the men sent…” Theodore started, but Kaji interrupted him.

“They’re dead, of course. You know that I’ve had much harder challenges in my time then shooting two clueless goons dead. Which begs the question: why only two, Chairmen?”

“What makes you think I was in charge of that? Any one of the council members could have coordinated the hit.” replied Teddy, but even he knew it was a flimsy excuse.

“I’ve worked with you many times, Cassin. You’re the only person on the council who has ever shown a modicum of disgust at the sins of NERV, even if you would never do it in front of your fellow council members. I was an asset once, but I became dangerous. Even SEELE knew better than to let me live. But there were only two sent to kill me. Color me insulted, Theodore-sama. I thought I was worth at least six soldiers.” Ryoji said, a hint of sarcasm creeping into his voice.

Theodore let out a sigh, the closest Kaji would get to a confession, and replied. “What do you want then, Ryoji? You know I’m in no position to defect from the council.”

“All I need from you, Chairmen Cassin, is two things. Two things, and I’ll take care of the rest. For the time being at least.

Teddy lifted his legs up and rested them on the balcony, and gazed at the horizon beyond him.

“What do you need?” said Theodore, giving into what he knew might just be the worst decision of his life.

“I need you to delete all the SEELE files pertaining to me and Ryoma Haruna. Call us both KIA, say we fell down a well, or we were stomped by an Evangelion. As long as the files are gone, we’ll have a chance.” said Kaji, and Teddy could hear the faint tone of eagerness in his voice.

“I’ll talk to my secretary, and tell her to sort them all into folder 2A. I might not be able to delete them, but I will bury them deep.” replied the chairmen, and he waited for Kaji’s next demand, hoping that it wouldn’t be anything too insane.

“I also need to know the location of Archive 11.” said Ryoji, and although he delivered his line flawlessly, Theodore was all too familiar with the edge of hesitation in his voice.

“What could you possibly want with Archive 11? It’s simply a pile of old garbage. Artifacts and technology, broken or deemed useless.” said Theodore, genuinely curious as to what Ryoji Kaji could want in that graveyard they called an archive.

“There’s a certain file there. I got access to a copy of it from NERV, but it’s wildly incomplete. I need the full thing.” Ryoji replied, and Theodore searched his voice for insincerity, but couldn’t find any.

“It’s in Tokyo-3. Across from Access Route 29. The entrance is through a black door on the first floor.” Theodore said, as he took a drag on his cigar, then squished it onto the ashtray. “There will be security on every floor, but there shouldn’t be any in the archive.”

“Thank you, Theodore-sama. I’ll contact you again soon” said Kaji, and the phone line dropped. Teddy stood with a huff, and drank the last bit of bourbon in his glass. He poured the last of the bottle into the glass, and enjoyed another sip. He opened the doors leading into his house, and walked down into the front lobby, where his secretary was typing away at a computer.

“I need you to sort out some paperwork for me. We lost a few operatives yesterday.” Teddy said, nursing all that was left of the aged alcohol Subcommander Fuyutsuki had gifted him a few years ago.

The secretary finished typing her sentence, then turned to face her boss. “What are their names?” 

“Ryoji Kaji and Ryoma Haruna. They were both Killed in Action yesterday. File them into folder 2A. Lock it under Level 0 authority.” Theodore told her, as he slid on his shoes and grabbed a jacket.

“Where are you going, Chairman?” the secretary asked, as she began hammering away at the keys on her keyboard again.

“To get drunk” he replied, as he stepped out the front door into the morning sun.

* * *

Ryoji let out a sigh of relief as he set the phone down, and Ryoma returned just in time to see him slouching in his chair.

“Well, did he give you the location?” Ryoma asked, as he stood in the kitchen, rinsing off dishes and placing them into the dishwasher.

“He did, surprisingly.” Kaji said, as he stood up from his chair and stretched. “It’s right across from Access Route 29, clear across Tokyo-3.” He walked into the kitchen, and began taking care of the clean dishes Ryoma had just taken out of the dishwasher beforehand, and began placing them in the cabinets.

“What’s getting into it going to be like?” Ryoma asked, as he finally gave up on scrubbing the sheet entirely clean, and simply put the whole thing inside the dishwasher. 

“Well, Chairman Cassin said that there’s security on every floor, but not in the archive. The only access point is on the first floor however.” Ryoji replied, as he finished putting the last of the dishes away, and hopped up to sit on a nearby counter.

Ryoma closed the dishwasher and pressed the start button, then poured himself a glass of water. “So how do you propose we get in? SEELE might not be too acquainted with my face, but they’ll recognize you in a minute.”

Ryoji thought for a moment, then glanced over at the computer. “You know, you make a good point. But maybe they don’t need to see my face.”

“What are you planning, Kaj?” Ryoma asked, as Ryoji walked over and picked up the laptop again.

“Well, this is a SEELE archive. The staff members have to be recorded. Yui Ikari might not have total clearance, but even with what she has, I think I can figure out a plan” Kaji said, as he browsed through the files of the workers at Archive 11. At the bottom of the list, he spotted two positions that were currently unfilled. He clicked on them, and read through them. He grinned, and began typing away at his computer.

“Ah, so you’re getting me a job.” said Ryoma with a laugh, as he sat down on a stool behind the counter of his kitchen. “What’s the prestigious position?”

Kaji finished typing, and then walked over to the counter, set down the laptop, and spun it around to face Ryoma.

“Haven’t you always wanted to be a janitor?” Kaji said with a laugh.

* * *

Subcommander Fuyutsuki hated Ikari’s office. He understood the design of course; it was a predictable design, meant to intimidate anyone that entered. It had never quite had that effect on Fuyutsuki, however. It just seemed… empty. Lonely. Like Ikari. Like himself.

“Commander Ikari,” Kozo said as he stopped in front of his desk. “One of our agents inside SEELE has reported that someone has logged into their archives using Yui’s password.”

Gendo sat in his chair in his usual pose, with his elbows resting on his desk and his hands placed in front of his face. His eyes betrayed no hint of emotion, but they never had.

“Where was the log-in location?” Ikari asked, his gaze appearing to go right through Kozo like a laser.

“Somewhere inside Tokyo-3. The agent attempted to track the signal, but the user covered their tracks well enough that they could only get a general fix of their location.” replied Fuyutsuki. “Should I send out some members of the Intelligence team to search for them?”

“No matter.” said Gendo, as he spun his chair around to face the Geofront. “Yui had no access to any files that could jeopardize our plans. Monitor for any further intrusions, but I see no reason to trouble the Intelligence team as long as they do not attempt to access anything important.”

Fuyutsuki was somewhat surprised that Ikari decided not to take any action, but then again it made sense. They were in the endgame now, and Gendo was too focused on the future to care about such a minor thing.

“Right. I will see you tomorrow, Ikari.” said Kozo, and he began walking for the exit.

“Fuyutsuki.”

“Yes, Ikari?”

“Make sure to notify me if the situation evolves further.” Gendo said, in a stern tone of voice, almost no different from how he normally talked. But Fuyutsuki knew him too well to believe that. He knew what the slight steely timbre in his voice meant.

Gendo Ikari was furious.

* * *

Ryoma Haruna fidgeted in the janitor’s uniform, consisting of a long green t-shirt with khaki dress pants. He felt weird wearing the outfit, especially since the utility belt he normally wore that was equipped with grenades and handgun magazines had been replaced with one filled with screwdrivers, nails, and electrical gear.

“I hate this damned outfit.” Ryoma complained. “I’ve got no room for a weapon.”

Ryoji leaned out from underneath the janitors cart he was hiding inside, his knees up to his chest, barely being able to fit inside.

“You’re seriously going to complain about not having enough room?” Kaji replied. “I can barely breath down here.”

“Yeah, but at least you’ve got a gun, Kaj.”

“Are you really that insecure without a gun?” Ryoji said, as he ducked back into the cart and pulled the curtain over him. “Knock twice if you need me, now.”

Ryoma rolled his eyes, and he maneuvered his cart up on top of the sidewalk and moved towards the front door of the building. He could see a sign up top, written in both Japanese and English, reading “Katabuchi Insurance INC.” He pushed the cart through the front door, and as he walked through the front door, two men in suits stopped him at the door.

“Excuse me sir, what is your business here at Katabuchi. We’re currently closed.” said one of the men, who was tall, with short-cropped black hair.

“I’m one of the new janitors. The name is Osamu Yasumoto.” Ryoma said, using the alias that Ryoji had provided for him.

“Ah, I see.” replied the man, and the second man pulled out a small device.

“If you could please place your thumb on the scanner, Yasumoto.” the second man said, and Ryoma pressed his thumb to the scanner, hoping that the Chairman came through for them and that Ryoji’s work on the profile was enough to work. The machine let out a chipper beep, and a small whirring noise filled the air. A small paper sheet came out of the machine and the second man tore it off and handed it to Ryoma.

“That’s your temporary ID card. Make sure not to lose it.” said the man, and he walked off. Ryoma let out a sigh of relief, and he headed down a hallway to his right. He stopped at an intersection between two hallways, and waited. He heard three faint taps on the right side of the cart, and so he turned right down an empty hallway.

“How far to the door to the archives?” Ryoma asked absentmindedly, as he reached another intersection and heard three faint taps on the left side of the cart.

“Just a few hundred meters. This intersection is the last one.” Ryoji said through his microphone, the spark of static in his ear causing him some minor pain.

“I should’ve invested in higher quality microphones.” Ryoma muttered, as he made the last turn. They sat in silence for just a moment as he wheeled to a stop outside a mysterious door, made out of a dark black wood and with the number “11” inlaid.

“Kaji, we’re here,” said Ryoma. “Pass me that keycard.”

Ryoji’s hand stuck out of the curtain and placed the card on top of the cart. As Ryoma reached his hand for the card, he heard a voice from behind him.

“Excuse me, what are you doing in front of that door?” asked an inquisitive voice. Ryoma turned around, and laid eyes on NERV’s Subcommander, Kozo Fuyutsuki. He had to hold back his surprise, but managed to bite his lip as he turned around and picked up a cloth and spray bottle from the cart.

“I’m cleaning it, sir. The black wood means it gets absolutely covered in fingerprints.” said Ryoma, as he deftly moved a tissue box over the ID card. “Was I in your way, sir?”

“It’s not an issue.” said Fuyutsuki as he swiped his card through the keycard reader next to the door, which flashed a bright green. “Have a good day, Mister Yasumoto.”

Ryoma watched for a few seconds as the man descended the stairs, before the door slammed shut in front of him. His heart was racing, but as he looked around it appeared Subcommander Fuyutsuki had been the only one other than them in the hallway.

“I recognized that voice.” said Kaji, as he started to get out of the janitor’s cart and stood up with a stretch. “Who was it?”

“Subcommander Fuyutsuki, and he just went down into the archives.” replied Ryoma, as he handed the keycard to Ryoji.

Kaji let his face break into a grin as he swiped the card and opened the door. He descended a few steps, then turned around to look at Ryoma.

“How can he catch me?” Ryoji replied with a wink. “I’m too busy being dead.” And with that, Ryoji Kaji shut the door behind him, and descended down that fateful staircase.

The steps appeared to be made out of some kind of dark glass, and as Kaji looked down, appeared to go on forever. The illusion lasted merely a minute though, as after descending part of the way he noticed the floor was made out of the same substance, and the stairs only descended a few dozen meters. As he reached the bottom, Ryoji drew his handgun, and checked to make sure it was loaded. Satisfied, he took a moment to look up and take in the sights of the room around him.

Although it seemed huge, the black marble walls made it seem much bigger than it truly was. The main body of the room was taken up with a few dozen bookshelves full of boxes, folders, books, and files, all neatly sorted alphabetically. The outside edges of the room had cases full of different objects, also neatly sorted. Kaji walked up to one of the cases, surveying the sole object inside. It looked like a broken shard of opaque red glass, only much bigger and thicker. The label next to it read “OBJECT - CORE,SHAMSHEL(4th),#17” in large letters, combined with a bunch of smaller ones next to it.

“So this is where they store the leftovers.” Ryoji whispered to himself, almost placing his hand on the glass before he stopped himself.  _ I don’t want to leave any prints _ , he thought. Pulling his eyes away from the scrap of Shamshel’s core, he moved over to one of the shelves labeled “IB-IN” and searched for the box he was looking for. He found it at the end of the last row. A small cardboard box sat next to a pile of folders, and a shiny gold plaque underneath them bore the words “Instrumentality.” He grabbed the box and slid it onto the floor, then pulled off the lid.

“What the hell?” Kaji exclaimed. The box was completely empty. There wasn’t even a scrap of paper inside it. He replaced the lid of the box and put it back, grabbing one of the folders instead. The folder was empty as well, and he put it back with a look of confusion on his face.

“Ryoji, what happened?” asked Ryoma quietly, speaking into the miniature speaker in Kaji’s ear.

“All the boxes on Instrumentality are empty.” Kaji replied.

“What?!” exclaimed Ryoma, and Ryoji heard a few faint muttering and grumbles on the other end. Apparently Ryo had bothered someone with his outburst.

“Everything told me that the files would be here.” Kaji said dejectedly, looking over the shelf to see if he could find anything that he had missed.

“Well I’m coming back around to pick you up in thirty minutes,” Ryoma whispered, “and you had better be ready.”

Ryoji began searching for any other mentions of Instrumentality on the shelf, but nothing stood out to him. As he traced his finger over the middle shelf however, one of the nameplates stuck out to him.

**Ikari, G.**

He grabbed the sole file that lay in a rack above the nameplate, and flipped it open. A psychological report with a picture of Gendo clipped to it lay on top of a small pile of papers. The report was dated back from 2003, and had the GEHIRN logo on top. Kaji flipped through the rest of the papers, which were mostly promotion papers and budget requests, until he came across one that interested him. Attached to the rest of the budget papers with a staple, the top of the paper read “Requests: Non-Budgetary,” and gave a list of requests the higher-ups at NERV had made over the past year. Some he recognized, like Gendo’s request for Asuka’s transfer to Tokyo-3 or Fuyutsuki’s applications for a fleet, but others appeared to be seemingly meaningless drivel. As he gazed at the list, one caught his eyes. It was dated only a week ago, and was one of the few requests with a comment on it.

**Requesting Party: NERV - Ikari G.**

**Request: Philosopher’s Stone (Archive 11 Case 11)**

**Request Status: DENIED (12-0)**

**Comment: Ikari must not be allowed to get his hands on the Stone under any circumstances. He already has access to three Evangelion Units, and the Stone serves as a useful alternative should Instrumentality be unachievable through conventional means.**

Kaji let out a low whistle. He had heard of the “Philosopher’s Stone” while taking Pre-Impact History in college, a supposedly magical artifact that could turn lead into gold. He had no idea, however, that it was a real thing.  _ Then again, SEELE has a fondness for codenames.  _ Kaji thought to himself as he tore the last page off the report, and placed it and the folder back on the shelf. He looked at a small sign on the wall, and moved over to read the plaque on the case. “SEELE - CASE 6” was inscribed on it, and so Ryoji followed the cases along.

“Seven, eight, nine… ten?” Ryoji stopped his counting abruptly as he bumped into a wall and looked up.  _ I thought it said Case 11, but the cases stop at 10 _ , he mused to himself. Just as the thought occurred, however, he heard a faint voice from off to his right. The quiet voice of Kozo Fuyutsuki filled the once empty air, and as Kaji turned his head to face the source of the sound, he saw a hallway he hadn’t previously seen before. He moved to the edge of the hall, and peeked out from behind the wall to look down it.

Subcommander Fuyutsuki stood in the middle of a completely empty room, with the exception of a small glass case. Ryoji couldn’t get a good view of what was in it, as the Subcommander’s body blocked it from his view, but he could see the plaque. “SEELE - CASE 11”. Kaji smirked, but only then did he stop to listen into the conversation Fuyutsuki was having on the phone.

“Of course the fools won’t let me touch it.” Fuyutsuki said, and although he seemed upset from the words he spoke, his tone betrayed nothing but cool calculation. “Keele only agreed to let me view it, and that was after a significant amount of poking and prodding.”

“There is no point in viewing the Stone, Professor.” said the voice of Gendo Ikari on the phone, the phone’s volume being magnified by the empty marble room. “I believed convincing the old men was a difficult proposition, but I had to attempt it. Our schedule is coming to a close, and I do not wish to delay it any further. We will proceed with the scenario as if the Stone had been destroyed.”

“Of course Commander.” Kozo replied, and hung up the phone. Ryoji heard Fuyutsuki’s footsteps approaching, and darted behind one of the shelves. He saw the Subcommander striding gracefully towards the exit, stopping for a moment to cast a quick gaze back at the case, then continued towards the exit. Kaji waited until he could no longer hear any footsteps, then quickly moved over to the hallway. Quickly glancing inside, just in case someone else was somehow in there, Kaji walked slowly towards the case until he stood right over the top of it.

* * *

A new challenger has entered the ring! Eva has a habit of using the names of mystical objects from history for objects in the show, the Spear of Longinus being a prime example. Naturally, I felt that I had to continue the tradition, and so the Philosopher’s Stone was born! This chapter also features Theodore “Teddy” Cassin, which is the fanon name for the US representative to the Human Instrumentality Council (thanks to the folks over at Evageeks!), and Subcommander Fuyutsuki. Although they both had somewhat minor roles, they will feature much more prominently in the future of the story. I’m excited to see how the rest of the story evolves, as even though I have the core of the story planned out, how we get there I’m leaving in the moment. :)


	3. Revealing the True Nature

**Chapter 3**

**“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life” - Charles Darwin**

Ryoji placed his gun in the holster, then turned his gaze back to the tiny object that laid inside the glass case. It was a golden octahedron, no bigger than the tip of his thumb, with a small golden circle attached to the top and bottom. It was covered with small, intricate drawings, and it rested on a small burgundy pillow. A small label laid on the right side of the pillow, reading “Philosophic Stone” in small letters.

“It seems so… small.” Ryoji muttered under his breath, trying to take in all the minute details of the object.

“Kaji, what’s going on down there?” Ryoma inquired, and Kaji could hear the quiet  _ squeak  _ of a spray bottle being used.

“I couldn’t find anything on Instrumentality, but I happened across Ikari’s file.” Ryoji replied, and his fingers strayed to the edges of the case, lingering over the latches to open the glass cases’ lid. “I found a report talking about this… thing called the Philosopher’s Stone. Apparently SEELE and Ikari want it for Instrumentality, but I have no idea what it does.”

“Well that’s fantastic,” Ryoma said, “but how do you plan to steal it from right under NERV’s nose?”

“Steal it?” Kaji replied, shaken out of his stupor. As he looked at the Stone, the thought of stealing it grew on him.  _ SEELE said that they required it,  _ Ryoji thought,  _ and there’s no better way to take down SEELE than to stop Instrumentality, whatever it is. _ Kaji traced his finger along the box, and felt a very slight numbing sensation alongside his fingertips.

“Ryoma, I think the box is electrified. Can you try cutting the power?”

“I can, but I don’t think it’ll go unnoticed. You’ll have to be quick.” said Ryoma, the creaking sound of the janitor’s cart barely audible over the static of the microphone.

“I only need a few seconds.” Kaji replied, as he pulled out his car keys. He deftly untied the lanyard he used to keep the keys on, then put them back inside his pocket.

“Alright, I’m in the electrical closet,” Ryoma whispered, “but there’s a handful of technicians in here. You won’t have more than ten seconds.”

“As soon as you flip the power, make your way to the archive door. I’ll be there, don’t worry.”

The lights suddenly shut off, and Kaji flicked upon the latches that kept the case shut. He quickly grabbed the Stone, then fumbled around with it for a moment before he managed to thread the lanyard through one of the holes, and he made a quick knot. He put the improvised necklace on, and raced for the door. As he began to ascend the staircase, the lights flickered for a moment, then turned on.

“Damn, are you there Ryoma-san?” Kaji barked.

“I’m right outside the door. You’re gonna have to make it quick, I can hear footsteps in the distance.” Ryoma whispered, while Ryoji was mantling stairs three at a time. He threw the door open to see Ryoma sipping from a soda bottle, the curtain moved to the side so Kaji could enter the cart. He quickly jammed himself inside it as quickly as he could.

“Go!” Kaji hissed, and Ryoma set off at a speedy walk. The only company Kaji had was the creaking of the cart’s wheels for what sounded like an eternity, until he heard a door open and felt the cart rattling on pavement. He flopped out of the cart with all the majesty of a fish. He quickly hopped into the driver’s seat of his Elan, and started it. Ryoma picked up the cart and set it in the back, then took off. They drove around for an hour or so, stopped and hid, then resumed the trip home, just to make sure to lose any tails they may have picked up. He didn’t relax until they were a few miles away from the safehouse, and even then the two said nothing to each other until they actually reached Ryoma’s house.

After rolling into the garage, Kaji let out an exhausted sigh and laid back as Ryoma exited the vehicle and flicked the lights to the garage on. He looked at Kaji, and could see something etched on his face. He didn’t know whether it was anger, happiness, sadness, or fear, but he recognized the faltering of Ryoji’s stoic exterior.

“Ryoji, why don’t you come in here and show me this Philosopher’s Stone?” said Ryoma, as he walked through the door into the main house. Kaji started to get out of the car, but decided that there was something he had to do first, no matter how stupid or foolish it might be.

“Ryoma, I’ll leave this here with you.” Kaji said, as he walked through the living room and set the necklace down in the kitchen. “I’ve got something I need to go do.”

Although the two hadn’t seen each other much in the past few years, Ryoma knew Ryoji Kaji better than almost anyone. Now, seeing him driving off into the sunset, he recognized the emotion he saw on his best friend's face just a few moments ago.

It was longing. And if that longing on his face meant anything, Ryoma knew exactly where he was going.

“Dammit, Kaji.” Ryoma grumbled, as he picked up his phone and began to dial one of the dummy numbers that would put him into contact with his employer. “I was really hoping we could get a little further along before I had to have you and your girlfriend killed.”

* * *

Misato Katsuragai let out a long sigh, and set down another empty can of coffee. There was another synch test coming in the next few days, and the events of the last week had left her drained. She stood up and grabbed another can of coffee from the fridge, and returned to her seat at the kitchen table, feeling utterly miserable. She had only arrived home from work about half an hour ago, and hadn’t even changed. After what she’d been through recently, she had no desire to maintain appearances. She let her eyes drift to the phone, but she forced herself to avert her gaze. She couldn’t go through that again.

She heard a faint knocking coming from the kitchen door, and it wasn’t until the person standing behind the door knocked again that she stood to her feet. She lazily walked over to the door, and opened it to the sight of Mister Sakata, one of her neighbors. The man was extremely old, and had a habit of forgetting which apartment is his.

“Oh, Miss Katsuragi!” he exclaimed when she opened the door. “I, uh, seem to have knocked on the wrong door. I don’t suppose you could tell me which apartment is mine again?”

She let out another exasperated sigh, something she did far too often these days. “I’ll show you to your room, Mister Sakata.” She shut the door behind her, and then grabbed the man by his arm. It was slow going, as to Misato it felt like the old man descended one step of the staircase every hour, but eventually she got him into his apartment. He thanked her with a smile and a promise to bake her some cookies.

_ I have no idea why anyone still stays here _ , she thought while staring at the bright full moon burnishing in the sky,  _ it’s not like it’s going to get any safer _ . As she reached the top step, she looked away from the moon, to the beckoning open door to her apartment.

Wait, open?

Misato cocked her head to the side inquisitively, and as she drew closer to the door she called out quietly.

“Shinji? Asuka? Is that you guys in there?” she said. She waited a few seconds, but heard no response. As she drew closer to the door, she caught a momentary glimpse of someone in the kitchen who was most definitely too tall to be Asuka or Shinji. She drew her pistol, then kicked the door in and pointed her weapon at the person in the apartment. They turned around, and she saw a familiar stubble-covered face break out into a grin.

“I didn’t realize you were so upset at me you wanted to shoot me… Misato” Ryoji Kaji said, whispering her name softly at the end.

She didn’t ever try to hold back her tears, her arms falling to her sides and her gun slipping from her grasp. “K...K… Kaji?”

He walked over to her, and gave her a bone-crushing hug for a few moments, before he let go, keeping his hands on her shoulders and looking into her eyes. “Who else could it be?”

Misato buried her face into his shoulder, crying loudly. She hugged him back, even harder then he hugged her.

Ryoji endured the hug for a minute, but after a bit his lungs felt like they would collapse. “Katsuragi, I can’t… breath” he sputtered, and she let him go.

“I thought you were dead Kaji…” she whispered, looking into his eyes and searching for some answer as to why he had abandoned her.

“I was… or so I thought.” he said, as he sat down next to the kitchen table. “They told me I was needed at a meeting at one of the power plants in Tokyo-3. I knew what was going to happen, but I had no other choice. They sent two men there to kill me, but Ryoma saved me.”

“Ryoma?!” Misato exclaimed, shocked by the news. She had only seen Ryoma once since college, at the clean-up of the 4th Angel, and they had been able to talk for a handful of minutes before Shinji arrived. “I thought he joined the JSSDF? How could he have… oh.” she whispered, her sentence trailing off at the end as she realized why Ryoma had been at the meeting.

“I decided right then, that even if my fate was sealed, I had to try and do something.” Kaji said, as he held her hands in his.

“What do you mean, do something?” she inquired.

“We decided to try and take down SEELE.” Ryoji said, brushing his fingers along her knuckles.

“Kaji, now is not the time for comedy.” she snapped at him, but he simply cocked her head to the side and looked at her, his eyes full of sadness.

“I’m not joking, Katsuragi.” he replied, his voice heavy with guilt.

“Ryoji…” she whispered. “How could you hope to take on SEELE? Why would you even consider such a thing? You’re only two people!” her voice was a shrill scream now as she vented all her anger and frustration from the past few days. “You’re going to die!”

Kaji gently grabbed her cheek, then leaned across the table and kissed her. “I was already fated to die. But someone decided there was more for me to do here.”

Misato’s eyes were watering again, though whether from anger or happiness, she wasn’t sure yet. But as she sat there, trying to find the words to say to a man she had already cried so many tears for, she heard the noise of a sliding door open, and the quiet sound of footsteps behind them.

“Miss Misato?” Shinji asked, as he walked into the kitchen. “Is something wrong?”

Misato saw as he entered the kitchen and looked at her, then glanced at Kaji, eyes widening in surprise.

“Mister Kaji…” he said, and Misato thought she could see the faintest trickle of a tear going down his cheek.

Kaji simply rose from his feet and softly wrapped his arms around Shinji. “Don’t worry, Shini.”

Misato was mildly surprised. She knew Shinji saw Kaji as something of a mentor, but she had never seen Kaji act so… fatherly. But as she looked at the two of them, she smiled. Something about Kaji being a father just seemed so right.

“I thought you were gone, Mister Kaji.” Shinji whispered, tears clearly flowing now as his voice wavered. “I thought you had died.”

Ryoji patted Shinji’s head, and held him just the slightest bit tighter. “So did I, Shinji-kun.”

Misato smiled even wider, but then she heard stomping that sounded all too familiar.

“Misato, how am I supposed to sleep when you’re screaming and you let the Third Children stroll around like he owns the place!” Asuka yelled, clearly oblivious to the fact she was screaming her frustration at Misato’s screaming. “It’s all you can do ever since Mister Kaji left you that message on your answering machine! Just cry and cry all over…” she continued, right until she walked into the kitchen to see Ryoji standing, with a half-smirk, half-grin on his face.

“... over Mister Kaji.” she said, as she looked at Kaji, who still had an arm around Shinji. Misato half-expected her to start crying at the sight of him, but in typical Asuka fashion she decided to take the berating approach.

“See!” she exclaimed loudly, “Mister Kaji isn’t dead! I told you so! What makes you think he could leave his favorite pilot behind, huh?”

Misato saw the slightest impression of a frown on Kaji’s face, but as soon as she thought she had seen it, it was replaced by a smooth veneer of stoicism.

“You’re right, Asuka.” he replied with a chuckle. “I could never leave Rei behind like that.”

“Hey!” Asuka yelled, clearly not taking Kaji’s joke as well as she thought he would. “You’re trying to be humorous in a very serious situation! We all thought you were dead!”

“You just said you knew I wasn’t dead.” Kaji pointed out, and Asuka responded with a huff.

“Yeah, yeah, no reason for semantics.” she replied, and plopped herself down at the table next to Misato. Ryoji took that as an invitation to sit down and talk

“So, how’d this all go down?” Misato asked

* * *

Ryoma couldn’t believe his luck, or rather his blatant lack of it. The original plan was to have him and Kaji steal the Philosopher’s Stone, agree to use it against SEELE, make some minor headway against the Council, then kill Kaji and frame him as a NERV spy loyal to Gendo. This would give the council all the leverage they needed to co-opt resources from the other U.N. nations, now that their scenario for Instrumentality was impossible due to what happened during the battle with the 14th Angel. Now, Ryoji had apparently decided to throw all his knowledge of the delicate touch a spy was supposed to have down the drain, and instead decided to visit Misato and the Children, which meant they had to go for the Plan B Scenario. Luckily, they were no longer required for Plan B, which meant he had no problems ordering a group of JSSDF moles to attack the apartment and kill them all. As he absentmindedly polished his Desert Eagle handgun while lost in thought, his phone buzzed with a familiar tone of Beethoven, and he picked it up without needing to look at the name.

“Chairman Keele?” Ryoma asked, as he began loading one of the weapons magazines with specialty ammunition provided to him by SEELE.

“Unfortunately not, Ryo.” said a faintly melodic voice on the other end.

“Ah, hey Kaworu. Where’s Keele?” Ryoma replied, not at all surprised that it was the gray-haired boy on the other end of the line. Ryoma had been personally serving as Keele’s resident spymaster for years, and three years ago had been invited to meet with him personally. On his way through the mansion, however, he had seen Kaworu, playing “Fur Elise” on a grand piano in the middle of the ballroom. He had been warned by the butler that let him in that, should he encounter the strange boy, he was not to approach him. Ryoma, however, had spent years learning to play piano just in case he needed to know it on a mission, and had walked over to the boy and asked if he could play with him. Keele was shocked beyond belief when, on his way to their meeting, he saw the two men playing the piano together, their harmonies rising to the heavens.

“Currently meeting with the council, of course.” Kaworu said, a slight bit of irritation in his voice. Nobody else, not even Keele, would’ve noticed that slight upturn in pitch, but Ryoma knew better.

“The old man never could tear himself away from his work, huh? Well, you can take the message to him. I have the Philosopher’s Stone; but Kaji bit the bullet way early, so we’ve gotta switch over to the Scorched Earth plan.”

“Really?” Kaworu replied, this time with slight surprise in his voice. “I’m sorry for your misfortune, Ryoma-sama.”

“You don’t have to call me that Kaworu, but if you insist.” Ryoma replied with a chuckle, thinking back to the last time he had seen Kaworu in person.

It had been Oktoberfest 2015, back in Germany. Keele had deemed that Kaworu spending time with Ryoma was acceptable, as he was too busy to look after the child, and so Ryoma had spent two weeks showing Kaworu the many sights and sounds of Germany. The two of them sat at a small outdoor restaurant, watching all of the people celebrating in the streets.

“It’s incredible, you know.” Kaworu said softly, stirring his iced tea. “All the pain and dread and unhappiness that happens in this world, but the Lilim still insist on their festivals. But it does bring them so much joy.”

“People are just looking for an excuse to avoid work,” Ryoma said with a chuckle, “and personally I don’t blame them. Oh hey, that reminds me, I picked something up for you while I was away on work”

“You… picked something up?” Kaworu asked, slightly confused. “I’m unfamiliar with that Lilim term.”

“It means I bought something for you. Here.” Ryoma said, as he pulled out a small box and handed it to the gray-haired boy, who took it with a combination of apprehension, confusion, and joy.

“Why would you acquire something for me?” Kaworu replied, even more confusion in his voice.

“Because I’m gonna be off in Tokyo-3 for the next six months or so, and I’m gonna miss Christmas. It’s a tradition with the Lilim that we give each other gifts on the 25th day of December, so I figured I’d get you something now. Go ahead, open it.”

Kaworu opened the small box, and found a strange black device he had never seen before inside it. “What is this?”

“It’s a tape player.” Ryoma said, as he pulled out a little instruction manual and placed it on the table. “Instead of having to play the music yourself, the machine plays it and you listen. It’s good for relaxing.”

Kaworu stiffened up the slightest bit, and Ryoma could have sworn he saw the boy’s eyes water the slightest bit. “Thank you, Ryoma-sama.”

“Hey, don’t mention it. You might be a bit of a quirky kid, but what kinda guardian would I be if I took care of you for two weeks then just hung you out to dry?” Ryoma replied, putting his hand on Kaworu’s shoulder. “Just because the old man treats you like a tool doesn’t mean you are one.”

Kaworu tensed up the slightest bit when the man placed his hand on his shoulder, but then relaxed. “Thank you again, Ryoma-sama. This means a great deal to me.”

“No problem, Kaworu-kun.” Ryoma said, right before his phone began to ring. “Ah, I’ve gotta take this real quick. Then I’m taking you to the Beethoven concerto the German military band is playing. I could never let you miss your favorite song.”

Ryoma flipped open the phone, and walked to the edge of the restaurant's patio and began talking. Kaworu looked down at the tape player in his hand, and placed both of the headphones in his ears, then pressed the button to start the tape. Immediately his ears were filled with his favorite Lilim song, and he began to hum along.

Ryoma hung up the phone, satisfied that his contacts had scrubbed his last alias sufficiently that he could use it once he was done in Tokyo-3, and turned around to head back to the table. He saw that Kaworu had learned how to use the SDAT, and was currently humming along to Ode to Joy. He smiled as the boy looked up at him as he sat back down, and the boy gave him a glowing smile back.

“ _ You know, despite all the crazy things Keele and the council says about Kaworu _ ,” Ryoma thought to himself, “ _ he’s still the closest thing I have to a little brother.” _

Kaworu drew himself back with the slightest bit of shock, although Ryoma was staring at the partygoers in the streets and didn’t notice. He had bent his A.T. Field just the slightest bit to see what Agent Ryoma was thinking, and was surprised to hear his line of thought.

“ _ Brothers.”  _ Kaworu knew the word, but had never heard it used. As he thought for a moment, he looked up at the smile on his handler’s face as he waved at a pretty blonde girl in the street. “ _ No, not handler. He said I was his brother. _ ”


	4. Of The Madness We Now Know

**Chapter 4**

**“Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.” - Haruki Murakami**

  
  


“Alright, Ryoji, I’ve heard a lot of strange things in my time at NERV.” Misato said, artificially emboldened by the several Yebisu beers she had consumed in the past hour of Kaji explaining how he had been saved and what they had recovered. “These kids fight in giant robots against evil monsters on a daily basis. But all this? Secret archives, magical artifacts, your college best friend suddenly appearing and saving your life? I’m not saying I’m ungrateful, but I’m incredibly confused.”

“So am I,” Kaji replied, “but that’s everything I can tell you right now.” The two of them sat alone in the kitchen, the children having retired to the living room to watch television after Kaji insisted he needed to talk to Misato alone about the more sensitive stuff.

“So this… Philosopher’s Stone thing? You left it with Ryoma?” she asked. “Any idea what it does?”

Ryoji cringed the slightest bit, then pulled something out of his pocket. “Yeah, about that part of the story. I might’ve conned one of my sleepers to make me a copy in the few hours it took us to make it back to his place quietly.”

Misato’s eyes widened in shock as a strange golden diamond, covered with tiny runes and symbols, dangled from a lanyard. Wait a minute…

“Did you seriously use the lanyard from your NERV ID to make a forgery of an ancient mystical artifact?” she said, equal parts shocked and sassy. “Most ancient artifacts don’t hang off of modern textiles.”

“You’re right, using a lanyard for a forgery  _ would  _ be stupid, however this is not a forgery.” Kaji replied with a smirk, as he passed it across the table to her. As Misato picked it up in her hand and began to admire it, Kaji heard his phone buzzing, and flipped it open to a text message.

**RYOMA LIED. STILL SEELE SPY. COUNCIL USING THEFT, BLAME GENDO, USURP NERV, PROTECT THE PLAN. A TEAM IS COMING FOR YOU, MISATO, AND THE CHILDREN. YOU CANNOT TRUST ANYONE. PROTECT THE STONE. - TC**

As Misato admired the strange gold object, she saw Kaji’s face etched with worry out of the corner of her eyes.

“Kaji? What’s wrong?” she asked, and he looked at her with an emotion she had almost never seen on his face: fear.

“Go get the children right now. Hide them in one of the rooms.”

“Kaji, what is going on?”

“Please,” Kaji said, as he stood up and moved over to stand next to the door. “I’ll explain as soon as you get them to safety.”

Misato nodded, and stood up and tried to move quietly into the living room. She saw the TV was on, and she saw the back of Asuka’s hair peeking up from under the couch, but couldn’t see Shinji. As she walked over to her to ask where Shinji was, she peered over the couch and couldn’t believe what she saw.

Asuka was lying down on the couch, with Shinji next to her, one of her hands interlaced with his, and the other gently combing through Shinji’s hair. Shinji appeared to be shaking a little bit, and Asuka leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “It’s okay, Shin-chan.”

Misato couldn’t string together a coherent string of words, but she tried to force out a question. “Ww…ho… huh?”

As she spluttered, the two kids turned up and looked at Misato at the same time, eyes bugging out in synch before they let out a simultaneous strangled “Ah!” and fell to the floor.

“Misato, we can explain!” they both said at the same time, but Misato had finally found her voice.

“How long has this been a thing?” she asked, still utterly confused, but at least able to speak.

Asuka was still trying to find her words, but surprisingly Shinji spoke up. “It’s been a few months now. After I, um, saved her from the lava Angel. We had a talk and… we realized we really aren’t so different.”

“Wait a minute,” a bit of incredulity creeping into her shocked tone, “you two have been in a relationship for months and you not only didn’t tell me, but somehow kept it hidden from me?”

The two both nodded, both a little too scared to speak. Misato pursed her lips and was about to say something, when she heard a shout from the living room.

“Misato, get them safe, NOW!” Kaji yelled. Misato, hearing the terror in his voice, decided to put away chewing out her charges for whatever was going on with Kaji.

“We’ll talk about this later, but right now you both need to get into Shinji’s room and stay there for the time being.”

Asuka looked like she was about to protest, but Shinji gave her a look and squeezed her hand, then got up and ran to his room, Asuka in tow. Misato ran back into the kitchen, and saw Kaji with his handgun drawn, next to the door. Misato's eyes flew around the room, trying to find where she left her holster, when she saw it hanging on a rack with her red jacket. She tossed both on as quickly as she could, then looked around for anything she had missed. She saw the weird golden necklace was still sitting on the kitchen table, and grabbed it and threw it around her neck.

“Alright, what is going on?” She hissed at Ryoji as she took her place on the other side of the door as she inserted a magazine into her handgun.

“It’s SEELE. They’re moving early.” Kaji replied. “They were supposed to wait until after the 17th Angel, but we’ve only just killed the 14th. Check through the peephole”

Misato leaned over quickly to look through the peephole, only to see six men with rifles and a quiet voice shout “Fire!”

“RYOJI GET DOWN!” she yelled, and dove to protect him, knowing she was too late. She collided with him just as bullets tore through the door, and she felt a strong tugging at the nape of her neck.

“AH, SHIT, AN A. T. FIELD!” one of the men screamed. “USE THE LANCE AMMO!”

Misato looked up, seeing her and Kaji were laying right in front of the door, with two of the soldiers firing their automatic rifles at them. An orange hexagonal barrier appeared in between her and Kaji and their fire, as the bullets bounced harmlessly off of it. She raised her gun, and fired a few shots in their direction. Two of them made contact with their targets; one of the men dropped to the ground clutching his shoulder, while another simply fell straight backwards, the energy of the bullet driving through his head knocking the corpse over. She scrambled to her feet and pulled Kaji over to the side of the door, as she heard the soldiers outside taking cover and reloading.

“What in the hell? An A. T. Field?” she half-shouted, and looked at Kaji, who just shrugged.

“You’re useless.” she said, then stood to her feet, then leaned out to take a shot at one of the men, just in time for one of them to plow her over as the 4 soldiers entered the apartment. The man hit her with the force of a train, sending them both flying into the kitchen table. Kaji managed to fire off a shot, killing one of the men as the momentum carried him into the refrigerator before he bounced off it and stopped moving. He tried to shoot the next two, but one of them grabbed his gun and stripped it from his hand, landing in the middle of the hallway. He twisted and kicked one of the men in the knee, then punched another in the gut. They both let him go for a second, and he rushed to try and save the man who was on top of Misato, the man struggling to shoot as she tried to overpower him.

He managed to get a few feet before he felt an arm close around his waist and haul him to the ground, and as he rolled over he saw one of the two men leaning against a wall, clearly still injured, while the other had their weapon pointed at his head. Before he could do anything, he flinched and closed his eyes as three shots rang out in the apartment. He kept his eyes closed for a moment, until he felt the impact of a thud next to him. Opening his eyes, he turned to see both men dead with bullet holes in the middle of their foreheads. He whipped around to check on Misato, but she had just thrown the corpse of the third man off the top of her, a bullethole through his temple. Kaji looked around wildly to see who saved them, only to have his eyes settle on Shiji Ikari, his eyes full of fire, holding Kaji’s handgun in his hand.

“Shinji?” Kaji tried to say, ignoring the loud ringing of tinnitus in his ears as he got to his feet. The kid dropped the weapon, then tossed it to the ground and ran over to help Kaji up. Asuka followed closely into the room, helping Misato off the floor.

“Since when do you know how to use a gun outside of your Evangelion, Shinji?” Kaji asked, as Shinji helped him over to the couch to sit down for a second.

“Well, when I was trying to figure out where to take Asuka on our first date, I knew she loved fighting in her EVA, so I figured maybe she’d like shooting guns in person.” The boy said, as he picked up Ryoji’s gun and handed it back to him. “A quick wave of our NERV ID, and they let us have free reign of the place. We’ve gone almost every week since.”

“Ah, Shinji, never picked you for the - wait, did you say first date with Asuka?” Ryoji said in a confused tone.

“Yes he did.” Asuka replied, helping Misato sit down in a chair in the corner. “And I can say I’ve never had a first date more fun than that one, baka.”

“Thanks, Asuka.” Shinji said with a warm smile, then he ran into his bedroom.

“Where… where does he think he’s going?” Misato asked, coughing uncontrollably from the dust the fight had raised tickling her lungs.

“He’s going to make sure we’re all safe, Misato, geez! Give Shinji a break, he’s not a coward.” Asuka said, as she returned from the bathroom with a damp cloth and began wiping off the cut on Kaji’s forehead.

“Well, thanks to him asking you out we’re alive, in a roundabout way, so I guess I’m glad.” Ryoji said with a wince.

“I’m still thoroughly confused.” Misato said as her coughing finally came to an end. “You’ve seriously been dating for almost six months and managed to keep it from us?”

“It wasn’t hard.” Shinji said, as he returned to the room. “We just decided we’d act exactly how we used to in public, and nobody would be the wiser. Right Asuka?”

“All my idea of course.” she said with a beaming smile, and she gave Shinji a quick hug, then she went back into the bathroom to grab some more medical supplies.

“The fatherly part of me is very disappointed, but the spy part of me is very impressed, Asuka.” Kaji said. “Overall, I’m not sure how I sho - Shinji is that a gun?”

The spy had just caught the attention of Shinji’s leg, as he noticed the kid was wearing a pair of American-style jeans instead of his typical slacks, though he still wore a school shirt. The real thing that drew his attention, however, was the thigh holster attached to the jeans, with a handgun firmly wedged inside.

“Oh, um, yeah. Asuka was hanging out with Hikari one week when we would usually go out, so I went with Shigeru instead.” Shinji said, with a strange combination of confidence and timidity. “He asked me if I actually owned a gun, and I told him he didn’t. It blew his mind that the pilots weren’t equipped for self-defense.”

“What is happening right now! Who on earth are my kids?” Misato exclaimed, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “Not only are they dating, but now apparently Shinji owns a GUN?” She let loose a sigh, then buried her face in her hands.

“It’s alright Misato.” Kaji said, as he walked over to her and placed his hands on her soldiers. “It makes no sense to me either. What, does Asuka have a gun too?”

“Mmm, umm, well… yeah.” Shinji said, a bit of his old timidity coming back.

“Great, that’s what I need in my life.” Misato sighed.

“Dear, considering SEELE just tried to have us killed, I don’t think Shinji and Asuka owning their own firearms, although highly irresponsible, is really that big of a deal at the moment.” Kaji said, running his hands through Misato’s hair.

“True enough.” Misato grumbled, then she thought for a moment. “And what about the A.T. Field?” she asked, turning to Kaji.

“What on Earth are you talking about?” he replied, clearly staring daggers into her and saying  _ Not right now _ with the fire in his eyes.

“Okay, okay, you’re right.” she said, resigned. “What do we do next? Go to the Geofront and contact the Commander?”

“No way.” Kaji said, a slight snap in his voice. “We know that the Commander is involved in SEELE in some way, shape, or form. We also know they’ve got agents everywhere in NERV. Nowhere official is safe.”

“Well, what about Ryoma? Doesn’t he have a hidden place SEELE doesn’t know about?” Misato asked.

“Yeah, about that.” Kaji replied, as he flipped open his phone and handed it to Misato. She read the few lines of the text, then looked up at Kaji.

“Who is TC? Are you sure you trust them more than Ryoma?” she asked.

“Without a doubt.” Kaji replied. “I can’t tell you who they are, but just know that they’re definitely on our side. And considering some goons just tried to murder us, I’m gonna assume their intel is solid.”

“So where can we go?” Asuka asked, coming out of the bathroom with a bundle of bandages, gauze, and rubbing alcohol in her arms, dropping it all on the floor in the living room in a small pile.

“I’ve got a small place that I know nobody knows about. I’m absolutely sure.” Kaji said. “We can be there in half an hour.”

* * *

Shinji surveyed the options in front of him. After collecting any medicine or anything else valuable in Misato’s house, they snuck off through the night, following Kaji, and made it to his “safehouse.” However, the safehouse happened to be a rickety apartment complex in the poorer parts of town, and since Kaji hadn’t been there in months, if not years, there wasn’t exactly much in terms of food to work with. It was the morning after the attack on the apartment, and was the day they were going to plan what on earth to do next. He sighed, and grabbed some flour and sugar from the cabinets.

“Good morning, baka.” Asuka said, as she snuck up behind him and gave him a quick hug while Shinji was making pancakes. “Hey, got a second?”

“Sure,” Shinji replied, “These need a few minutes to cook. What’s up?”

“How do you feel about all this?” Asuka said, as she sat down in a chair in the corner of the kitchen. “It’s totally crazy. There’s supposed to be more Angels, but we can’t go to NERV. We’re Evangelion pilots without Evangelions. It’s total lunacy. Why can’t things make sense anymore?”

Shinji cocked his head sideways and looked at Asuka. Ever since they had become a couple, Asuka’s temper had started to mellow out. They discussed all of the trauma of their pasts, their issues, and their insecurities. The two of them had grown close, and they had both changed tremendously. The fact that she wasn’t yelling this at the top of her lungs, and was simply talking calmly, was a testament to that.

“I don’t know. I never thought I’d be involved in a fight outside of an Evangelion. The thought that anyone could be trying to hurt us, even our old friends at NERV, is scary. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. But we’ll get through this together.”

“I know we will,” she said, “but it’s all just so… overwhelming. And now Misato and Kaji know we’re together?”

Asuka appeared to be lost in thought for a moment, but then she got up from the chair and grabbed his hand. “Well, whatever the case, we’ll figure it out. Together, okay?”

“Together.” he agreed, and he gave her a short hug, then returned to the pancakes.

“Well well well, what are you two lovebirds doing this early in the morning?” Kaji said, as he walked into the kitchen, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes.

“I’m making pancakes, and Asuka’s making coffee.” Shinji said, flashing Kaji a quick smile.

“Really? That’s great!” Kaji replied, taking a quick glimpse to make sure Misato wasn’t up yet. “Hey Asuka, can you take over Shinji’s cakes for a moment? I wanna talk to him about something.”

Asuka looked up, and her eyes met Shinji’s. They both shared a knowing look, then she hopped up. “Sure thing, don’t rough him up in there too much, baka.”

“Ha ha” Shinji said, as Kaji gestured him into the small living room of the apartment and the two sat down on the couch. Kaji looked at the boy that sat before him, and he kicked himself for not realizing how much he had changed in the past few months. Shinji had let his hair grow out a little bit more, and he looked much more confident than ever. Kaji even felt the slightest bit of intimidation wafting off Shinji, in no small part due to the .45 caliber pistol still holstered to his leg. Shinji noticed where Kaji was looking, and he looked up as if he was about to say something, but Kaji shushed him.

“Listen, it’s not about that specifically, but it’s kinda along those lines.” Kaji said, steeling himself for the next question. “It’s about yesterday, when we were in that fight and…”

“And I killed three people.” Shinji said, finishing his sentence. Instead of fear or anger, Ryoji simply found the young boy’s voice full of resignation.

“Does that bother you?” Kaji asked

“I… I thought it would. When Asuka and I went to a range for the first time, I told her that I wasn’t sure if I could shoot someone if I was in danger.” Shinji explained, trying to hold his head high, although Kaji could see he wanted to let it dip so he didn’t have to like him in the eyes. “She kinda laughed at me a little, but she understood. She knew the kind of person I was.”

“Was?” Kaji inquired.

“Well, I’ve, uh, changed. A lot, since we started dating.”

“Changed enough that you don’t feel bad about… all that?”

“I thought I would.” Shinji replied, finally letting his head fall. “But, after the adrenaline wore off, all I could think about was how glad I was that nobody got hurt. I kept waiting for the guilt, but it never came.”

“I understand, Shinji.” Kaji said, putting a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “You’ve been through so much. It kinda makes sense that you might be desensitized to all this.”

“Boys, breakfast is ready!” Asuka shouted from the kitchen.

“Danke, liebling!” Shinji replied, then got up to go to the kitchen, leaving Ryoji lost in thought. This was a kid that could barely emotionally function six months ago, and less than 12 hours ago he shot 3 people dead in his own apartment.

“ _ People change, _ ” Kaji thought to himself, “ _ but can they really change that much? That might not have been cold-blooded murder, but the kid didn’t feel a shred of guilt. _ ”

Kaji laid down on the couch, trying to puzzle out who the Third Children had become, and wondering what on earth happened to that meek little kid he met so many months ago.

* * *

Ryoma Haruna had no qualms with cold-blooded murder, unlike a certain stubbly-haired spy. In fact, Ryoma had no issues with any kind of murder, which might suprise people considering his generally jovial and good-natured personality. This outgoing personality had worked to his advantage, as well as his ability to lie through his teeth so well he’d get banned from every casino in Tokyo-2 had he ever visited them, when trying to convince people he was on their side. However, almost every person in the world has an opposite side to their personality, and Ryoma Haruna’s good nature gave way to a terrible sadistic streak. However, his original plan to take over NERV was to convince Kaji to let his guard down and truly trust him, which relied all upon that jovial attitude, had totally failed when the guy made contact with his girlfriend, which was not what he thought would happen. Now, Ryoma was stuck taking the backup plan, which unfortunately did not involve the side of him that would take people out for drinks, and instead involved the side of him that caused Keele to question if he should be put on more antipsychotics than Jim Jones.

“I mean, for God’s sake, he’s been at this job for years.” Ryoma said out loud, as the doctor he’d been pressing for information was trapped by the nape of the neck under the heel of his boot. “Wouldn’t an elite triple-agent spy know better then to contact his girlfriend and put her in danger? It’s just a real enigma to me, pal.”

“Please… please… let me go.” The doctor sputtered, barely able to breath. Ryoma looked down at him, then let out a sharp laugh.

“Hey, you gave me all Ryoji’s medical records. You’re a good man in my book.” Ryoma replied. “I’ll set you free, right here and now.” He drew his suppressed handgun from his holster and fired two shots into the back of the man’s skull. 

“Oopsie, I don’t think that was the free that he meant.” he said, with a wild bit of manic glee in his voice. However, at that moment, his phone started to ring. Fishing it out with one hand, he put his handgun back with the other.

“Yello, this is Haruna?”

“You’ve been talking to Tabris again.” the gruff voice of Chairmen Keele said, echoing imposingly from the speaker of the phone.

“Yeah, yeah I have.” replied Ryoma in a matter-of-fact voice, not the slightest bit intimidated by who was arguably the most powerful man in the world. “I don’t care what you guys say, whether the kid’s an Angel or not, he’s still a kid. He needs someone to treat him like a real person. Oh, and by the way, he does have a name, you know.”

“I’m well aware that Tabris has a name.”

“Then use it, Chairmen.” Ryoma said, relishing in the ability to sass any member of the SEELE Council with impunity. He was far too talented and skilled for there to be any chance at getting rid of him, and besides that, he was the only person the 17th Angel would even talk to willingly, which had to count for something.

“Fine.” the man said through gritted teeth, his voice laced with frustration. “We will discuss this later. Has your interrogation been successful?”

“Oh, I really don’t know if I would call this an interrogation.” Ryoma said, as he fired another shot into the back of the secretary at the front desk, causing her to slump over in her chair. He shoved her out of it, then began typing at the computer with one hand. “I’m pretty sure it was an execution.”

“You sound… gleeful about your killings, Agent Ryoma-sama.” A faint melodic voice echoed from a small distance away, although it sounded somewhat tinny on the speakers.

“Tabris, you are not welcome in my office at the moment.” Keele said, and Ryoma had to stifle a laugh.

“No no no, put Kaworu on the phone, I like him much better than I like you.” Ryoma replied with a laugh.

“You’re extremely lucky that you are who you are, Ryoma Haruna.” Keele said, and he heard him pass over the receiver.

“Hello?” Kaworu said, his voice sounding strangely distorted through the phone’s damaged speaker. “How is it going, Agent Ryoma-sama?”

“Oh it’s going great!” Ryoma said, as he pistol-whipped the secretary who was starting to regain consciousness. “We’ve only got a few more steps until you get to come into the picture. We’ve just gotta track down all the places these folks could go, then lock them down. Then we just wait for the Stone to make itself an A.T. Field, and you can sniff them out.”

“How would I use my nose to locate Inspector Kaji?” Kaworu replied, seemingly confused.

“Ah, dammit, forgot that you don’t really do the whole ‘idioms’ thing. You’ll be able to find them, since the Stone makes an intrinsic A.T. Field as long as it isn’t subject to constant electromagnetic pulse. After a week or so, it’ll be strong enough you’ll be able to sense it wherever it is.”

“Ah, I see. So I will be heading to Tokyo-3?” Kaworu asked,

“Your plane leaves in 12 hours.” Keele said, barely loud enough for Ryoma to hear over the speakers.

“Jeez, you’re such a big fop. Why do you have to be so stiff?” Ryoma replied, loud enough that he knew the Chairmen could hear, even if Kaworu still had the phone. “Would it kill you to show the kid some TLC for a moment.”

“If your extant abilities were not crucial to our backup plan, I would’ve squashed you like a gnat months ago.” Keele said, his voice full of venom. “As it stands, your insubordination is… required.”

“Well, of course it is.” Ryoma shot back, the phone trapped under his ear as he typed with one hand and fired a round at a security guard that had come to check the front desk with the other. “There’s literally, what, three other people that can do what I do? Four if you count Kaworu? I’m a member of a very exclusive club.”

“Your abilities are impressive as always, Ryoma-sama.” Kaworu said, and Ryoma had to choke down yet another laugh as Kaworu’s tone was clearly attempting to get a rise out of the chairmen.

“Oh, speaking of abilities, there are a whole lot of people in this practitioner’s office that have a meeting scheduled with a .50 caliber round, so I might have to let you go. Sorry Kaworu, but I’ll make sure to pick you up when you land at the airport.”

“You will do no such thing.” Keel replied indignantly. “You are not to kill any more people than is required for the Scenario, and you absolutely will not be stopping your search to watch Tabris get off a plane. He is our tool for Instrumentality, not your little brother.”

“What’s that?” Ryoma said. “I can’t hear you over how excited I am to see my little brother. Haruna, over and out.”

Kaworu listened to the phone for a few seconds more, but heard nothing. “The line is dead, sir.”

Keele took back the phone, and slammed it down on his desk. “You know your orders, Tabris?”

“Of course.” Kaworu replied. “Land in Tokyo-3, find the Stone, kill Ryoma, then frame Kaji for the killing. The JSSDF will think that Kaji has turned traitor, then during the three-way power struggle, we initiate Third Impact.”

“And will you obey those orders?” Keele asked, as he leaned over the desk to stare at Kaworu.

“Without a question.” he replied.

“Good. Go pack your things and prepare for your flight.”

As Kaworu rose from the chair and left the man’s office, his hands trembled just the slightest bit. He hated lying.


	5. Everyone Is Mad Here

**Chapter 5**

**“There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” - Bill Waterson**

Kaji rested his cheek against the polymer stock of the sniper rifle, making sure to control his breathing. He looked through it, and after checking the area where the target would be and seeing nothing, he stood up from the ground.

“How long do we have until he’s supposed to show up?” Misato grumbled, as she checked the rangefinder while sitting cross-legged in the grass. The two of them had set up on a hill about half a mile from Okinawa Ridge, where the Minister of Intelligence would be standing soon, waiting for his SEELE contact.

“Only a few minutes left. The text I sent him said 1200 hours.” Ryoji replied, as he grabbed a bottle of water and took a short sip. “How are the kids doing?”

“Fine,” she said, “I just got off the phone with Shinji half an hour ago. The shopping went fine, nobody noticed them. They’re back at the apartment now, waiting for us to show up.”

“Are you sure it’s smart to leave those two alone for so long?” he retorted, raising an eyebrow.

“Are you kidding me?” she snorted. “They’ve been dating for MONTHS behind our backs, Ryoji. It’s not like they can do much they haven’t already had a chance to do.”

“Fair enough.” he replied, as he laid prone on his stomach again and looked down the scope. “I trust Shinji to keep his womanizing instincts to himself.”

“I blame this new Shinji on you.”

“How is this my fault?”

“Because,” she replied, “hanging around with a suave, handsome moron like you gave him the confidence to ask Asuka out. And now, with all the time you’ve spent together, the kid is fashioning himself out to be a miniature Kaji.”

“Ouch, I’m hurt by that.” he said with a chuckle. “You’d never catch me in jeans.”

Misato shot him a dirty look, and he turned to look back at the ridge, where there was finally a swarm of movement. A car had pulled up, a black sedan with tinted windows, and a man in his late 40’s with salt-and-pepper hair got out of the passenger seat, with three bodyguards in suits following after, who spread out to set up a perimeter.

“That’s Mr. Miyagawa alright.” Kaji said, narrowing his sight on the man’s head. “Any extra adjustments I need to make?”

“Not that I can see.” Misato replied. “Wind speed still looks the same. You sure you can make 4 shots in as many seconds?”

“Oh come on, ye of little faith.” he replied sarcastically, “when have I ever let you down?”

Misato mumbled something about “college”, then turned back to keep an eye on the rangefinder.

The high-caliber sniper rifle let out a loud  **_thum!_ ** as the first shot was fired, the suppressor incapable of doing anything but slightly dampening the echoing sound of the bullet, and the round pierced through the head of one of the three security guards on the perimeter. None of the rest had noticed, so Kaji racked the bolt, and took aim again. Another  **_thum!_ ** echoed throughout the valley, and a second bodyguard took a round through the head. That, however, alerted the last bodyguard, who had time to spring to his feet and shout his bosses’ name before another echoing  **_thum!_ ** sent the suit-clad guard spinning. Minister Miyagawa looked around wildly for a moment, then began running for his car. One last  **_thum!_ ** cracked across the valley, hitting the man in the back of his leg.

“Dammit.” Kaji said. “I thought I would’ve been able to get all 4.”

“He’s in no position to make a call, and besides, that shot hit an artery.” Misato replied, as she began packing up the rangefinder. “Ready to get out of here?”

“After you, Katsuragi. Let’s just hope that SEELE doesn’t decide to screw the power structure and appoint another slave of theirs to the Intelligence chair.” Kaji said, as he started disassembling the rifle. “And if they do, our jobs may have gotten even more difficult.”

Misato let out a snort. “Getting more difficult is par for the course. A week ago, I was the Major Katsuragi, Operations Director at NERV and in charge of three of the most powerful beings on the planet. Now, I’m Misato Katsuragi, running from my bosses, and the government mind you, and helping my boyfriend assassinate evil Illuminati servants.”

“Would you have it any other way?” he replied, as he finished putting the rifle inside its bag.

“Yeah, how about at home, drinking coffee, with my boyfriend and my kids all… in… one… piece.” she said, poking Kaji in the chest to put emphasis on the last few words.

“Point taken.” he shot back, as he heaved all the gear into the back of the car. “Never thought you’d go back to yearning for the domestic.”

“Please.” she grumbled. “I just miss my Yebisu.”

* * *

Fuyutsuki set his ballpoint pen back in the mug on his desk, and moved the paper to the side. Budget requests were piling up, and over the past few weeks have been wildly eating into his budget. The Angels were an ever present threat, but almost every single department in all of NERV was jealous of the amount of money that was lauded on them. Currently, Fuyutsuki pored over a proposal by Section 2 to take what used to be Unit-02’s coolant budget and use that money instead to refurbish their armory, a light on his intercom showed that his secretary had someone asking to see him.

“Miss Nakao, I’m not supposed to have any visitors during these hours.” Fuyutsuki said, droning over the budget sheet.

“It’s the Commander, sir.”

“Oh, fine, send him in.”

As Kozo set down the report in the rejected pile and turned to face the door, Gendo Ikari had already entered and was walking slowly towards the desk. This is one of only a handful of times the Commander had ever visited him in his office, so he assumed it must be for good reasons.

“Ah, Ikari, I’m surprised. Why not invite me to your office instead?” Fuyutsuki said, trying to get a read on his student’s face.

“I have just finished a meeting with the council. My son and the Second Child have been kidnapped.” Ikari said, somewhat of a snap in his voice. Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow at this. “Misato Katsuragi and Ryoji Kaji are directly involved.”

“Hold on now, Gendo.” he replied, using his privilege as probably the only person who could use the Commander’s first name without retribution. “Major Katsuragi cares for your son as one of her own, and I don’t have to remind you she shows him more affection in one day then you’ve shown him in the past 10 years. She wouldn’t just endanger him like that.”

Gendo’s face tightened slightly, bearing the slightest tinge of sadness. “I am aware of that, Professor. This is SEELE’s conclusion, not mine. I have no reason to believe Katsuragi would act to harm the Children in any way. However, her relationship with Ryoji Kaji makes her easy to influence, and it is his intentions that I do not trust.”

Kozo narrowed his eyes at Gendo, searching for any form of emotion on his face. “Why do you care, Ikari? SEELE has moved onto their plan B scenario, and so have we. The Second and Third Child are irrelevant for plan B, we can make do without Katsuragi, and we may be better off without Kaji.”

“The Third Child may still be necessary if SEELE decides to deploy the Eva Series. The Second Child is also a capable fighter, and may be useful to manipulate the Third into piloting Unit-01 for her safety.”

“How hard is it to admit that you care for your son, Gendo?” Fuyutsuki replied.

Gendo was silent for a moment, then looked to Fuyutsuki. “I have engaged one of our special operatives in order to locate them. He will have access to any resources he requests.”

“Really?” Fuyutsuki replied. “Who is it?”

“I don’t think we’ve met.” said a faint voice, as Kozo leaned around Gendo to look at the man behind him. His eyes were steely-gray, and his hair had wisps of white among the blonde. His pale skin contrasted the formidable jet black assault rifle he held in his arms. The man reached for Fuyutsuki’s hand, and he shook it firmly. “I’m Ryoma Haruna.”

“Are you sure you’re up to this task, Mister Haruna?” Gendo asked. “There is a significant amount riding on your ability to recover the Children.”

“Oh don’t worry.” Haruna said, as he clenched his fist, with his eyes full of fiery motivation. “You have my word.”

Miles below the office in Terminal Dogma, the shattered body of a black Evangelion shook slightly, then the eye flared to life as it clenched its fist, and its body slowly began to mend. There was a shuddering gasp as the jaw restraints strained, then a loud snapping noise as the creature prepared to let out a bellow, but was silenced by the man standing so many floors above who had absolute control over it. Ryoma Haruna looked at Gendo and Kozo, and at the same time laid his eyes through Unit-03 on Heaven’s Door.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to make things right.”

* * *

Misato hated being in bars now that she could no longer drink. Shinji had been trying to wean her off alcohol for months now, and after she thought Kaji died she had kicked the habit in favor of coffee. Now, even though her boyfriend was back, she was still trying to stick to her guns and avoid alcohol, if not for her sake then for Kaji’s. Instead, she was nursing a soda while sitting in a corner booth, waiting for the bridge techs to get there, while Kaji ran surveillance outside.

“How long until they get here?” Misato asked, stirring her drink aggressively in frustration.

“Aoba’s car just pulled up. I think… yep, all three of them are in it. They’re on their way inside now, headed towards you.”

She looked out the window at the roof of a nearby building, and Kaji met her gaze with a friendly wave. She shook her head, and Kaji could’ve sworn he heard the word “moron” at least twice in the spurt of grumbling that followed. She looked up to see the Aoba, Hyuga, and Ibuki filtering into the bar, all wearing civilian clothes, and she waved them over.

“Major Katsuragi!” Maya said, as she sat down next to her, clearly happy to see her. “They just told us the news earlier today, I didn’t believe them for a second. I’m glad you and the kids are okay!”

“Calm down, Maya.” Shigeru said, as he and Hyuga picked up the seats on the opposite sides of the booth. “How are you, Major?”

“I’m alright, although I do have a bone to pick with you later.” Misato replied, as she pointed her straw at Aoba. “You bought both my kids guns?”

Shigeru went slightly pale, but proceeded to defend himself without so much as a stammer. “Well… technically  _ I  _ didn’t buy them, the Children did, God knows their salaries are enough to do so. I just signed for them. They’re the only thing standing in the way of the Angels, and I figured they needed something to keep them safe on the ground.”

Misato leveled her gaze at him, and he shrunk away. “We will resume this discussion later,” she said as she plopped the straw back into her drink, “but for now we have more important issues at hand. So you said Ikari told you about the situation this morning?”

“Actually, Ritsuko briefed us about it.” Maya replied. “The Subcommander and the Commander were in a meeting with some special secret agent in charge of the recovery operation. We had a disruption from the briefing when we detected an A.T. Field disturbance in the base, but it turned out to be nothing.”

“I think Misato wanted to know what they actually told us.” Hyuga said, with a roll of his eyes, then turned to face Misato. “Ritsuko said you and Kaji had kidnapped the Second and Third Children. She believed that you may have been coerced, but that Kaji was the mastermind. There’s a shoot on sight order out on Ryoji, and a detainment order out on you and the Children.”

“A likely story.” Misato retorted grumpily. “What actually happened was a bunch of goons tried to kill us because Kaji stole something important, and now this group called SEELE, who actually controls NERV, as well as most of the U.N. and the Japanese government, is trying to silence us.”

The three bridge technicians stared at Misato, blinking slightly in confusion. Maya looked uneasy, and Shigeru looked thoroughly confused, but Hyuga just stared at her with a solemn look in his eyes. “It’s a lot to take in Misato, but we believe you. What do you need us to do?”

“I need you to keep an eye on NERV. Let me and Kaji know if anything out of the ordinary happens.” Misato said, returning to her new habit of stirring her drink and staring into its depths, wishing it was a Yebisu instead. “Don’t do anything that’ll put you in danger, though.”

“We won’t, Major Katsuragi.” said Maya. “You can count on us.”

“And we’ll make sure not to tell the Commander or Subcommander anything.” Aoba added.

“And I definitely won’t tell that Inspector prick Haruna anything.” Hyuga said, causing Misato to spit out her drink.

“What did you say the inspector’s name was?”

* * *

As a plane began to approach off in the distance, the man in charge of the private airstrip outside Tokyo-3 began checking his logs with confusion. There wasn’t supposed to be any other flights coming in today, and especially not small civilian flights. He turned on his microphone, and put on his best captain’s voice.

“Excuse me, inbound flight, please identify yourself.” he said, trying to sound extra burly. “This is a private airfield, please identify yourself.” After hearing nothing but a few seconds of static, he tried again. “If you do not identify yourself, I will be forced to call the authorities and have you arrested upon landing.”

After hearing nothing but more static, the man decided he wasn’t going to wait just so he could spend the next few minutes listening to static, and moved over to the terminal where he could dial the police. As he began typing in the numbers to get into contact with the Tokyo-3 police, he felt a searing pain in his abdomen. Letting out a pained cry, he fell out of the chair and rolled onto his back, staring into the dark grey eyes of a blond-haired soldier, armed with a dripping combat knife and a massive suppressed handgun.

“Just business, you know.” Ryoma said, as he squeezed off a shot into the man’s chest, and watched as he squirmed on the ground. “No hard feelings, pal, okay?” The man sputtered, trying to talk even though his lungs were being flooded with blood, but he couldn’t get out anything. Ryoma just shook his head, and made his way down the ladder from the Control Tower down to the tarmac.

Just as he reached the asphalt, the plane had finished their touchdown, and the exit door was deploying the staircase. Ryoma walked casually to the bottom of the staircase as a familiar grey-haired boy exited the plane. He finished cleaning his combat knife just as Kaworu reached the bottom of the staircase, and he was met with a beaming smile from the young boy.

“Hello, Ryoma-sama. How are you?” he asked tentatively, wondering if the man he had looked up to as a brother a few months ago was still caught up in the throes of his psychosis.

“Oh, I’m just fantastic, Kaworu.” Ryoma replied, as he placed his combat knife back into his thigh holster. “I had to get my hands a little dirty to make sure you had a safe landing, but such is life! Now follow, we’ve got places to go and things to do.”

Kaworu followed him, a slight frown on his face. He knew that Agent Haruna had spent several years working for the U.N. torturing terrorists in order to get information, and he always knew the man had been… different. But this mania in killing that he found in Ryoma was nothing like he had ever seen him before. Kaworu reached out his A.T. Field, buffeting Ryoma in an attempt to glean what was wrong with the man.

The A.T. Field of the average human Kaworu encountered was shaped like a block, but would bend and shape around others. However, Ryoma’s A.T. Field was jagged, jutting out randomly, flickering from almost impossible to notice to even more powerful than his own in the space of a few seconds. Kaworu tried to smooth it, to help ease the madness that SEELE had caused him to descend into because of his mission, but he found that even trying to connect with him caused Kaworu to be wracked with pain and made Ryoma’s A.T. Field go even more crazy.

As he stopped for a moment to catch his breath and calm down from the pain, he took another look at Ryoma’s A.T. Field, and could see a long wisp of it that appeared to be straying away from him. He cocked his head to the side, now even more confused. It was something that he had heard about in Evangelion Pilots, that a faint wisp of their A.T. Field would remain attached to their Units, but he knew Ryoma was no pilot. He was far too old. So he reached out towards the wisp, willing himself towards it, hoping that he could catch a glimpse of what this bond was. Suddenly wracked in pain again, he hit the ground as a flood of memories flew through him.

_ Hands. Hands around his neck. The startling purple visage of Unit-01, red eyes burnishing, as it snapped his neck with a sickening crunch, and proceeded to disembowel him. _

_ Darkness, as he had been transported to the Evangelion Graveyard, where all rejects came to die. But he was no reject. He couldn’t be. He was… no failure. _

_ Figures. Figures that walked among him, mocking him with his proximity to Lilith. Figures that poked and prodded, even though he could do nothing. _

_ Pain. Pain as they slit him up, carved him open like poultry, and took away his Fruit of Life. He felt himself fading. Drifting away. _

_ New Life. Everything was bright. Strong lights. Voices. Voices shouting things. A name. Haruna. Haruna. Haruna. He had become one with someone else. _

_ New Lease. No longer did he have the strength of his Adamite flesh, but he now had the cunning of his Lilim body. _

_ Opportunity. His host was strong, but even the strongest could break. A nudge towards darkness here, a minor incident there. He would not be denied. _

_ Impossibility. The Stone. The Stone had deepened his power over his subject. Made him dominant. Reinforced his will. This Lilim would not deny him. This form would be his. _

_ Retribution. He would not stand for simply this Lilim body. He was a Lilim, through this body. He was an Adamite, through his last. He intended to have both. _

_ Identity. Once, his Angelic body had been Bardiel. His host’s body had been Ryoma. But now they were one. Combined. And now they were new. A creature all their own. _

_ Individuality. They were not quite Lilim. Not quite Adamite. His old names no longer suited him. He was two individuals, but was also one. He needed a new name. _

_ Punishment. That was his quest. To punish Lilim for their misdeeds. So he would be punishment. He was no longer Bardiel. He was no longer Ryuma. He was Kushiel. _

Kaworu let out an involuntary gasp as he fell to the floor, breathing heavily. He tried to get to his feet, but an unfamiliar feeling grasped him. He felt uneasy, like he could barely stand. He saw Ryoma running to him over from where he had been, and the blonde-haired man slid to the ground and put a hand on Kaworu’s back.

“Hey, kiddo, are you alright?” Ryoma asked, rubbing Kaworu’s back. He looked the man in the eyes, seeing the concern etched onto his face.

“You’re… Bardiel?” Kaworu asked, the wrenching pain in his gut subsiding.

“Well, not quite, Kaworu.” Ryoma replied, as he helped the grey-haired boy to his feet. “We… inhabit the same body, but different bodies at the same time.”

“How… how is that possible?” Kaworu said, finally able to stand, but still wracked with pain.

Ryoma twisted his ballistic vest the slightest bit and lifted his shirt, showing a slight purple glow underneath his skin in his belly. “Keele decided to try an… experimental procedure of sorts. He had some operatives remove most of Unit-03’s S2 Engine, and decided to simply try and implement it into a live subject.”

“That’s insane.” Kaworu muttered to himself. “And it worked?”

“Not… quite. My body wasn’t able to handle it, so they tried something.” Ryoma said. “I had most of Bardiel’s S2 Engine, and a sliver of his core. He had most of his core, and a sliver of his S2 Engine. But somehow, the two can still communicate. We can both heal from injuries as if we had fully intact S2 Engines. I can synch with Unit-03 as long as I’m close enough to it. If there isn’t anything to kill, he prefers to stay inside Unit-03.”

“So you’re… still two separate beings?” Kaworu asked. Even he as an Angel was having trouble understanding this.

“Three, actually.” Ryoma said. “I am Ryoma Haruna. Bardiel is in Unit-03. But whenever the two of us merge, we become something new.” Kaworu saw Ryoma’s A.T. Field begin to surge as the small wisp became a cord, and the man before him changed slightly in a moment. Ryoma’s eyes flickered to a dark grey, and saw his skin suddenly became pale, almost lifeless. The man’s blonde hair was now streaked with slight tinges of white, and the glow from the S2 Engine was now partially visible through his shirt. “Together, we’re something different. So we took a new name.”

“Kushiel. The Angel of Punishment.” Kaworu replied, the pain finally subsiding as he drew himself up into his typical haughty posture, though he was still hurting and confused. “A fitting name, it seems. But how did you become like this?”

“We never were, until a couple of days ago.” Kushiel said, his steely eyes meeting the crimson eyes of his brother. “The Philosopher’s Stone touched us, and it regrew the damage to my S2 Engine and core. It was a simple matter for it to reach through and restore Unit-03’s likewise. You can thank Ryoji Kaji for that.”

“Ryoji Kaji.” Kaworu muttered, as he extended his A.T. Field like a sonar ping and felt it bounce back. He turned to look up at one of the outpost towers on the opposite side of the airstrip. “You mean him?” he said, as he pointed towards the tower.

Kushiel narrowed his vision, and even though the distance was hundreds and hundreds of yards. He recognized the pony-tailed visage of Kaji as he saw him mouth a string of swear words, and the man drew back from the window he had been leaning out a moment ago. “Go to the car, brother. That man and I need to have a quick talk.”


	6. Some Live Forever Too

**Chapter 6**

**“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” - G.K. Chesterton**

Kaji had never been a military man, nor had he ever been a religious man. However, as he found himself making his way down a ladder at a private airport wearing a ballistic vest and carrying a rifle, he found himself praying to a God he didn’t believe in that they had not actually seen him. However, God was apparently not in a good mood today, as upon reaching the grass at the foot of the ladder, Kaji looked up to see Ryoma sprinting across the tarmac towards him.

“Dammit.” Kaji muttered to himself, then he began jogging for the car, hoping to get there before Ryoma could get close. He was breathing heavily by the time he got there, even though the jog was only a hundred meters or so. He pulled open the back of the van, and threw the bag of surveillance gear into it. Before he could shut the back door, he heard a  **_crack!_ ** and stumbled back behind the car, looking up to see the shattered glass next to his head and feeling the pain in his side. He pulled one of the clear plastic magazines from his vest and slapped it into the rifle, then drove the bolt home. He laid down on the ground for a moment, trying to get a sight of Ryoma from under the car, but as he looked back and forth, there was nobody there.

“ _ Oh no. _ ” Kaji thought to himself, then a shudder shook his body. “ _ I’ve seen enough Western movies to know where this is going. _ ” He rolled over while on his back, and had just enough time to register the blonde-haired man standing over him before he lashed out with a kick, hitting him squarely in the stomach. Ryoma stumbled back, and Kaji took the chance to rise to his feet. He switched his weapon to automatic, and just as Ryoma regained his balance, Ryoji let loose a torrent of bullets on him. Ryoma fell to the ground, blood splattering everywhere, as he looked at Kaji with incredulity in his face. He could still hear the injured man’s ragged gasps, and enemies they may be now, he didn’t want Ryoma to suffer.

“I’m sorry, Ryo.” Kaji said, taking the halfway empty magazine from the rifle and replacing it with a full one. “I really wish it didn’t have to be this way.”

Kaji leveled his rifle at Ryoma, and was preparing to fire it when Ryoma held up his hand in front of the barrel. Kaji lowered his rifle just the slightest bit, and looked Ryoma dead in the eyes for a second until he realized something was wrong: Ryoma stared back at him with steely-gray eyes. Just as Kaji realized, Ryoma lunged for the rifle and grabbed it by the front, causing a loud  **_crack!_ ** as he crushed the front of his rifle with his bare hand.

“Yeah, I really wish it could have.” Kushiel replied, spitting out blood as he used the rifle to drag himself to his feet, simultaneously throwing a stunned Kaji off balance and pulling the gun out of his hands. Ryoji rolled and landed on his feet, as Ryoma rose up from the ground, covered in blood but so far looking totally unhurt.

“What the hell?!” Kaji screamed, as he saw Ryoma rise to his feet and turn to face him. It was only now that he noticed that gray-colored eyes weren’t the only thing wrong with his friend. His blonde hair was streaked with grey, and his skin had an extremely light pallor to it. Ryoma looked at Kaji and started howling in laughter, as he determinedly walked towards Kaji. Ryoji drew his handgun, and fired all 8 shots at Ryoma’s torso. It barely slowed him down for a moment though, and he continued to move towards a stumbling Kaji, who managed to load another magazine back into his handgun.

“You can’t kill me Kaji.” Kushiel roared, as he broke into a sprint after the pony-tailed spy. Kaji was about to fire again, but he realized in a split second that, even if the next volley of rounds managed to kill a seemingly immortal Ryoma, the momentum of the charge would probably knock him to the ground and break a few ribs. A split second later, and Kaji dropped to the ground, laying flat on his back, as Ryoma’s momentum continued to carry him. Kaji grabbed the man’s wrists, then planted his feet on his chest and flung him backwards with all his might. He heard a loud  **_crack!_ ** as he felt Ryoma’s wrists snap in his hands, then another  **_crack!_ ** as his skull bounced off the pavement.

Kaji stood up, still half in shock, and stumbled towards the car. Throwing open the passenger side door, he looked back at Ryoma. He was rising from the ground, his wrists writhing as they apparently mended themselves. Kaji fired seven more shots from his handgun, and one of them hit Ryoma in the head, driving him to the ground again. Taking the moment into his hands, Kaji threw his handgun onto the floor on the driver’s side, then sidled over the passenger seat and started the car. The engine roared to life, and he floored the accelerator as he saw Ryoma rising again behind him, this time with a small hole in his forehead that slowly grew smaller.

* * *

“You know, I’m really starting to get tired of this.” Asuka muttered, as she sat on the couch ignoring the television. “I hate being cooped up like this!” She raised her head from the couch, looking up at Shinji, who was standing over a pot in the kitchen. She got up to her feet, letting out a long yawn.

“Hey, you’re awake.” Shinji said with a smile, as he untied his apron, and hung it over one of the chairs in the kitchen. He was wearing a red t-shirt and jeans, and decided to wear the golden pendant Kaji had gotten around his neck for safekeeping. “How was your nap?”

“Terrible.” Asuka said, as she grabbed some bowls from the cabinet and set them on the table. “I wasn’t able to fall asleep.”

“Sorry, Asuka.” Shinji replied, as he started doling out homemade ramen into their bowls. “I know you’re anxious.”

“Something just feels wrong.” Asuka said under her breath, as Shinji grabbed one of her hands for reassurance. “Kaji should’ve been back half an hour ago.”

“He’ll be back soon, I promise.” Shinji said, drawing her into a close embrace. “I’ll do anything to protect you.”

_ “A10 synapses are collapsing on all networks!” Maya yelled, as Eva Unit-03 continued its strangle-hold on Unit-01. “The pilot can’t take much more of this!” _

_ “Activate the Dummy Plug.” Commander Ikari said, his voice emotionless as usual. “We have no time for inaction.” _

_ “No!” a voice echoed through Central Dogma, as Maya realized she hadn’t set their comms with Shinji to one-way. “I… won’t… hurt… Toji! But I will kill this angel!” Shinji's voice rang out with a kind of bitterness and anger nobody had ever heard from him. _

_ “This wasn’t the plan, Ikari.” Fuyutsuki said, as Gendo leaned slightly further forward on his chair. _

_ “I know.” The Commander replied. “This is most unlike him. I will not step in, however.” _

_ “You… will not hurt Toji!” Shinji screamed, as he grabbed Unit-03’s arms and used all of his strength to pull the hands from around his neck. Slowly, he managed to pry the hands away until they were a few feet away from his neck, then put all of his power into a devastating kick to Unit-03’s chest. The Evangelion went flying from the sheer force of the blow, landing over a hundred meters away as it bounced on the ground. _

_ “Shinji’s Synch Ratio has increased over 100%!” Maya yelled, as she spun around in her chair to face Ritsuko. “He’s currently at 120% and climbing rapidly.” _

_ The rogue black Unit-03 rose to its feet, just in time for Unit-01 to deliver two quick jabs to its torso, then grabbed it by the head and slammed it down into the dirt. The purple hands of the mecha gripped Unit-03’s Entry Plug, and with a loud  _ **_squelch_ ** _ the plug was torn from the back of the creature. Shinji tossed the plug a few hundred meters to the side, using his A.T. Field to completely soften the landing. He then turned his eyes to the Evangelion he was standing on top of, which had twisted itself so that it was facing him, reaching for his throat with its hands once again. _

_ “You hurt Toji!” Shinji screamed, as he gripped one of the arms of the Unit like a vise, slowly cracking and shattering its armor. “You hurt Asuka!” he wailed again, as he grabbed the other arm, shattering the armor under the strength of his grip. “You hurt Rei!” he shouted a third time, and increased the pressure from his knee onto the chest of Unit-03, cracking the plate on its chest. “NOW IT’S TIME FOR ME TO HURT YOU!” _

_ Everyone in Central Dogma watched in horror as Shinji’s grip tightened, snapping both of Unit-03’s wrists, and then with what seemed like no effort, Unit-01 ripped both of the Angel’s arms out of their sockets. He continued to rain down blows, screaming indiscriminately as he began to batter the creature's armor. _

_ “It’s gone berserk!” Misato yelled, as she ran over to Maya’s terminal. “The synch rate is at 230%!” She looked up towards the Commander’s platform, only to see both Fuyutsuki and Gendo staring at the screen, wide-eyed in shock. She shook her head for a second, confused at seeing the Commander showing any form of emotion, then was dragged back to reality by Ritsuko. _

_ “It’s not berserk!” she yelled, as she started typing on one of the computer stations. “Shinji is still totally in control!” _

Shinji’s eyes went wide with what he just saw. He felt himself tense up, and felt a burning pain suddenly appear in his chest.  _ That… that wasn’t how it went _ , Shinji thought to himself, horrified at what he had seen. As he tried to exclaim, his throat didn’t work, and he felt himself being pulled back into the visions.

* * *

_ Misato turned her eyes to the monitor in horror as she saw Shinji continuing to eviscerate the creature, pulling off both legs and snapping them in half, raining down blood-colored LCL over him. He continued battering hammer blows into the chest and skull of Unit-03, as she saw Unit-01 begin to smoke. _

_ “Unit-01 is heating up tremendously from operating at such a high synch rate for high periods!” Shigeru yelled, totally futile as everyone had their eyes glued to the screen. They all watched in horror as Unit-01 began to glow slightly orange with heat, as the paint on its armor began to flake off. Shinji continued to batter Unit-03 with blow after blow, as the familiar purple paint of Unit-01 sloughed. _

_ Although Unit-03’s official designation said it was “black,” it was more of a very dark navy, interspersed with dark purple and grey segments. However, as all of Central Dogma watched as Unit-01’s paint burned into cinders, revealing the true colors underneath. The armor was jet-black, contrasting the bright red glow that Shinji’s and Unit-01’s eyes had taken on during the rampage. _

_ “Are you proud of me now, Father?!” Shinji screamed, as he tore off the chest plate of Unit-03, exposing the now-vulnerable core. He continued to smash at it, Unit-01’s fist striking with force equal to a 100-ton train. After a handful of strikes, the core shattered, causing a massive crucifix-shaped explosion that destroyed all of their cameras. _

_ “Do we have eyes on Shinji?” the Commander yelled, standing up from his desk. Fuyutsuki noted that, not only had the man shown emotion in public, but he had asked about Shinji, not Unit-01. _

_ “Camera 34 is coming back online!” Hyuga yelled, as he began hammering away at the keyboard. The feed appeared very pixelated, but as it started to clarify itself, it began shaking madly. _

_ “What’s going on?” Fuyutsuki shouted. “An earthquake?” _

_ “There are no readings as such on our sensors!” Maya yelled back, then she turned back to the monitor and had to suppress the urge to vomit. _

Shinji started swaying, as he felt Asuka’s arms wrap around him. “No…” he muttered under his breath, so quietly that even she didn’t hear it. He felt the tugging in his head, as the visions tried to take him back.

_ The charred remains of Unit-03 lay strewn all around the ground, LCL soaking into the ground everywhere in a thousand meter radius. Unit-01, now completely jet-black, sat on its knees, bellowing into the sky, with what appeared to be an oversized human heart in its hands. _

_ “Is it berserk now?” Maya asked Ritsuko while still trying to stifle her stomach. “It’s never bellowed before without being berserk.” _

_ Ritsuko pressed a few buttons, then examined the screen. “His synch ratio is at 333%, but he’s still well in control. Why is it bellowing?” _

_ “It’s not bellowing.” Shigeru said, pulling off his headset as everyone in the room, including the Commander, turned to look at him. “It’s laughing.” he said, as he pulled out the jack to his headset from the audio console. _

_ Maniacal laughter filled the room, as everyone looked around in shock. Maya couldn’t hold it anymore, and found the nearest trash can to puke into. Hyuga tried to pull up the video feed to the entry plug, but they had been fried. As he tried to figure out what to do next, a terrifying voice filled Central Dogma. _

_ “Are you proud of us now, Gendo?!” the voice screamed, as it continued the maniacal laughter. Misato realized, along with the rest of Central Dogma, that it must be Shinji’s voice. “Isn’t this what you always wanted?!” he screamed, as Unit-01 crushed the heart above its head, showering himself with blood-red LCL. _

_ “What have I done?” Fuyutsuki heard Gendo mutter to himself as he stared at the view screen. _

_ Shinji’s laughing finally began to slow down, and Unit-01 rose to its feet again. He finally stopped to take a breath, panting in the LCL as he let the oxygen flow through his lungs. He had always hated violence. But that thing had hurt Toji, Rei, and most of all, Asuka. He found no joy in destruction before, but as he tore into Unit-03, he found some kind of mad glee in it. This thing would never hurt Asuka, Rei, or Toji ever again, and he would make sure of it. Unit-01 began to walk towards the nearest launch pad that led down to the Geofront, its black frame still coated in blood, as the silent pilot mulled over his actions in his head. _

_ He would’ve done it again in a heartbeat. _

“I know you will, Shinji.” Asuka said, as she hugged him back, but suddenly she felt him go cold. She looked up at him, to see his eyes wide with shock. “Shinji are you okay?”

“No, don’t…” Shinji muttered, as he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. He felt a terrible burning sensation on his chest, as he balled up on the floor. “Oh my god.”

Asuka stood in shock for a moment, watching her boyfriend bawling on the ground, then knelt down next to him. “What’s wrong, Shinji?”

“I… I saw the fight with Unit-03. But it was different. I… saved Toji, then… I tore Unit-03 to pieces.” Shinji stuttered, his eyes glazed over with horror. “It was disgusting.”

“You went berserk?” Asuka asked.

“No, it wasn’t like that.” Shinji explained. “I… was just filled with rage. I wanted to do anything I possibly could to hurt it. I butchered the angel, and then there was… screaming, and I laughed.” Shinji hung his head in between his legs and began crying.

“It’s okay, baka.” Asuka said as she stroked his hand. “Everything is fine. We beat the 13th Angel together a few weeks ago. We pulled out the entry plug. Toji is safe. It’s okay.”

Shinji tried to steady his breathing, but he still felt like he was in total agony. His heart was hammering a million miles a minute, and his chest still felt like something was scorching him. He looked down at his chest, and he noticed that the golden object on the end of the chain was glowing. He stared at it, and as he did he felt his mind slipping away again for a moment, back to the horrible visions.

_ He didn’t have anything left to live for. Asuka hated him, just like she had ever since they met. Rei slapped him for a second time after he threatened the Commander. Mister Kaji had been sent back to Germany. Misato was working overtime double-shifts. His father couldn’t even stand the sight of him. _

_ Shinji opened the door to the balcony, letting the evening air cool his skin. His clammy hands grabbed the rail of the balcony, breathing deeply. A few days ago, he couldn’t have imagined ever doing it. Now, however, it consumed all his waking thoughts. Shinji mustered all the remaining courage he had inside his body, and mantled over the railing. _

_ “Shinji? Asuka?” Misato asked, as she set her bag down on the kitchen counter. She walked into the living room, looking around for the kids. The balcony door was open, and she could see the curtain flapping from the wind. “Guys, you know you shouldn’t be on the balcony at this time of night.” She walked out on the balcony, only to find nobody there. She looked around, and then looked over the edge of the railing. Her eyes caught a spot of white, and she looked down upon the frail, broken body of a brown-haired 14 year old Misato had come to love as her own son. _

_ “OH MY GOD, ASUKA! COME QUICK!” _

“Shinji, what’s wrong?!” Asuka yelled, as Shinji trembled in her arms. He was flailing slightly, and although she held him tight, he was shaking uncontrollably.

“I… don’t… what’s going on?! Don’t make me see these things!” Shinji shouted, then he slumped down to the ground again.

“Asuka, what’s going on!?” Kaji yelled, as he came through the door to the sight of Shinji flailing in her arms. He rushed over to her side, ignoring his own injuries.

“I don’t know!” Asuka shouted, her anger coming back from the deep, dark place she’d been trying to keep it for the past few months. “He’s just shaking like crazy, and he keeps freaking out. Shinji, what’s wrong?”

_ “Father?” Shinji asked, as his dad stood over a pot of soup, stirring it with one hand, while reading it with another. “Can I ask you a question?” _

_ The older Ikari set down his book, and took a quick moment to make sure the soup was ready, then walked over to the table with Shinji and sat down. “Of course, Shinji. You know you can ask me anything.” _

_ “Are you going to propose to Naoko? I know you two have been together for a while. I just wanted to know.” Shinji asked, looking down at his feet. _

_ Gendo let out a short chuckle, and tipped his son’s chin up. “You found the ring, didn’t you?” _

_ Shinji looked his father in the eyes, and the two of them both started laughing. “Yeah, I did.” Shinji said, forcing down another chuckle. “I just didn’t know if I should’ve brought that up when I asked.” _

_ “No, it’s okay, son.” Gendo replied. “Yes, I’m going to propose to Naoko in a few weeks. Make sure not to tell her or Ritsuko, okay?” _

_ “”Of course, Dad.” Shinji said. “I’d never want to ruin that surprise.” _

_ “Thanks Shinji.” Gendo said, and he relaxed in his chair. “I don’t want you to think I’m trying to replace Yui. I… still love her too. But…” _

_ “It’s okay, Father.” Shinji replied, and Gendo looked up to meet his father’s eyes. “I know you’d never do that. I really like Naoko, and Ritsuko is a really good older sister.” _

_ Gendo’s eyes teared up a little bit, and he drew his son into a hug. “I love you, Shinji.” _

_ “I love you too, Dad.” Shinji replied. _

Shinji stopped flailing, tears still streaming down his face wildly as he trembled slightly. Asuka ran her hand through his hair, holding him in her arms. Kaji stared wildly, looking at the still-glowing necklace he had just torn off Shinji. As he turned the Philosopher’s Stone over in his hand, it felt cool to the touch, even though it was glowing. He set it down on the counter, throwing a towel over it, then hastily made his way back over towards Shinji and Asuka. His trembling had slowed down, and he appeared to be sleeping in Asuka’s arms.

“What happened?” Asuka asked, the slightest edge in her voice as she looked at Kaji.

“I… have no idea.” Kaji replied, as he stared at Shinji. “It must have been the stone, but… I don’t even know what the thing does.” He tussled Shinji’s hair, then thought for a moment. “We should probably get him into a bedroom. He needs to rest after that.”

Asuka shook her head adamantly, and squeezed Shinji tighter. “He needs me. I’m not gonna leave him alone.”

“Okay, I understand.” Kaji said, as he stood up and grimaced as he felt a pain shoot through his side. He stumbled the slightest bit, and caught himself on the counter.

“Kaji, are you okay?” Asuka said, her anger replaced by worry. “Oh gods, did you get shot?!”

“Yes, I did, but I’m fine.” he replied, as he held up a hand to keep her quiet. “I did a field dress while I was out. I’m sore, but I’ll be fine.”

“Who shot you?”

“You know what I hate?” Ryoma said, as he walked down the small steel hallway, Kaworu at his side. “Bureaucrats. They just slow everything down, with all their papers and dollars and legislation. Much easier to just get things done, don’t you think?”

Kaworu looked around the hallway that they walked down. The entire thing was made of reinforced steel and concrete, and was dimly lit by soft white lights. They had gone straight here from the airport, and even though Kaworu had a good sense of direction, all he knew at this point was that they were wildly far underground.

“Ryoma, why are we here?” Kaworu asked, as the two of them approached a door at the end of the hallway flanked by two security guards. Ryoma flashed them his ID card, and they opened the door without a second thought. The two of them walked into a luxurious room that appeared like it was from a 5-star hotel. The room was completely void of people, with the exception of one man sitting by the fireplace smoking a cigar.

“This is why we’re here, Kaworu!” Ryoma said cheerily, as the man by the fireplace jumped to his feet and spun around to face the two of them. “I present to you, Toru Fujiyama! Also known as SEELE-11!”

“Ryoma, why the hell did you bring Tabris here?” Toru hissed, as he set his cigar down in the ashtray. “The plan doesn’t involve him coming anywhere near her. In fact, the plan doesn’t involve either of you near here.”

“That’s because there’s been a… development. Yeah, we’ll call it that. Also, his name is Kaworu.” Ryoma said, as he gestured for the man to sit. Kaworu noticed the deeping white in his hair, and saw his skin fade as he and Bardiel began to share a body.

“So, here’s the deal.” Kushiel said, looking deep into the eyes of Toru. “You are going to give me the access codes to the bay where you’re keeping the replica Spears of Longinus.”

“That’s not part of the plan.” Toru said, attempting to sound stoic, but coming out as scared. 

“Yeah, you got me, it’s not. You’ve got thirty seconds to give me the code, Fujiyama. If you don’t, I’m going to kill you where you stand.” Kushiel said, delivering the line without a single change in tone. Kaworu watched as Toru pressed a little button on the side of his watch. After a few seconds, he pressed it again, but nothing happened.

“Aw, is your little alarm button not working?” Kushiel cackled, a wicked grin on his face. “My A.T. Field fried that the moment we got in here, Toru. You’ve got 20 seconds.”

“A.T. Field? But you’re not an Angel?” Fujiyama stuttered, clearly confused as he looked upon Ryoma’s pale visage.

“And you see, that’s where you’re wrong!” Kushiel said, startling the SEELE member. “I’m Kushiel, the Angel of Vengeance, and I swear to god, if you don’t give me those codes in the next five seconds, I’m going to pop your head like a melon.”

“Wait, you’re… what… why?!” Fujiyama tried to speak, but it just wouldn’t come to him. Ryoma decided he didn’t have time for this, and his hand shot out and grabbed Toru’s head, then with a sickening  **_crack_ ** , crushed the councilman’s head.

“What… what did you just do?” said Kaworu as he stared at the mangled body of SEELE-11.

“What I’ve been planning ever since I awoke a few days ago! Besides, I already had the codes, this was just for fun.” Kushiel said, as he drew his handgun and moved towards the door. “We’re paying back these traitorous Lilim for what they did to our father! SEELE, NERV, it all burns down! No more Instrumentality for them! Only death at our hands, little brother.”

Kaworu shook his head in sorrow. He had begun to see Ryoma as a true brother, and now that he and Bardiel had fused, he had quite literally become his brother.  _ He may be an Angel now _ , Kaworu thought,  _ but this is no brother of mine. _


	7. But Madness Always Follows

**Chapter 7**

**“Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.” - Herbert Hoover**

Shigeru shivered as he pulled his jacket tighter around him. The MAGI may be the most powerful computers in the world, but even they overheat with extended use. The liquid nitrogen pumped into them helps keep them cool, but as a result many of the rooms on the lower floor of the complex are freezing cold from the overflow. This especially applied to the archive rooms, where Shigeru found himself right now. He was trying to search for any reference to the Philosopher’s Stone in NERV’s archives, but so far all he’d been able to find is obscure references as footnotes.

“Come on, dammit.” Shigeru muttered to himself, wishing he would’ve brought a heavier coat. “I don’t have time for this.”

Suddenly, a quiet clattering sound echoed through the archive room. Shigeru looked around wildly, and quickly picked up his Uzi. He heard another noise, this one quieter, and he crept along the racks of files. Seeing movement out of the corner of his eyes, he turned the corner, and pointed his gun at the source of the noise.

“Wow, Aoba, calm down!” Makoto hissed, as he and Maya put their hands up.

“Oh goodness, you guys scared me.” Aoba replied, as he adjusted the weapon’s strap and let it hang at his side. “Let’s get going, I need your help.”

The two technicians followed Aoba to the back of the archives, where the data terminal was. Aoba sat down next to his laptop, and gestured for the other two to plug theirs in. Quickly getting to work, the three of them typed away on their laptops, scouring codes for information. After half an hour, they hadn’t made much progress other than finding a few more footnotes, but just as they were about to leave, Makoto stumbled upon something interesting.

“Hey, Shigeru, Maya, take a look at this.” Hyuga said, as the other two set down their laptops and walked over to him.

“Did you find something on the Philosopher’s Stone?” Maya asked, a bit of excitement in her voice.

“No, but it’s something equally interesting.” Shigeru said, looking over Makoto’s shoulder. “Is that Inspector Haruna’s file?”

“Yeah, and take a look at this resume!” Hyuga exclaimed, as he pored over it. “Graduated at 22 with a Bachelor’s in Military Engineering, served two years as a U.N. Infantry, two in U.N. Special Forces in South America, spent one year in the GSG9, then spent the last two years as a special U.N. ‘Consultant.’ that traveled the world before becoming a Major in the JSSDF.”

“Consultant? I’ve never heard of a position like that.” Maya replied. “Why hire someone on as a ‘consultant’ when you’ve already got all of the world’s best experts on a string?”

“Exactly, you wouldn’t.” Hyuga replied, and as he browsed the listings he raised his eyebrows at a handful of them. “Take a look at some of these dates. He was in Tokyo-2 the day before the Prime Minister was killed, and he was sent as a diplomatic envoy to Moscow two weeks before the Minister of the Interior was shot. He was on a ‘peacekeeping’ stint in Greece during the Mediterannean Civil War, and look! The month he was there coincides perfectly with when the resistance lost the war!”

“So, does this mean he’s some sort of spy?” Maya asked. She’d never been one for politics or combat, and it was all a little over her head how Makoto had memorized all these dates.

“No, worse. It looks like he’s a ghost.” Shigeru replied, his sense of pessimism ever-present. “These guys go into foreign countries, topple governments, kill world leaders, destabilize groups, devalue currencies, anything. They’re real bad news”

“Wait a minute, look at these pictures.” Maya pointed out. A handful of the pictures were official shots, Haruna standing in military dress or wearing a suit and tie, while others were grainy battlefield shots from war reporters.

“Of course you’d be paying attention to the pictures while we’re trying to find out who this guy is.” Shigeru teased, but before Maya could slap him, Hyuga hit him on the back of the head.

“No, seriously. Check that one out!” The three diverted their attention to the picture at hand, showing Ryoma wearing a flannel shirt and jeans with a ballistic vest over the top, posing with an assault rifle along with some other U.N. Peacekeepers. “His eyes are green, and his hair is dirty blond. Not to mention how tan he is.” She pulled up her laptop, then typed in a few strings of code. “Now look at his official NERV I.D. photo!”

Makoto and Shigeru looked at her laptop, and had to admit there was a significant difference. His eyes had become gun-metal grey, and his hair was streaked with white. His skin was much paler, and his face appeared more angular. “So what? The guy got some colored contacts and a new hairdo? How is it our business?” Shigeru asked.

“You’re absolutely right, Aoba. It’s none of your business.” said an echoing voice, and as the three of them looked up, there stood Inspector Haruna, wearing a leather jacket and jeans despite the intense cold. He was holding the foregrip of an assault rifle with one hand, resting the stock against his chest, and was holding a flashlight in the other hand which he proceeded to point at the group of astonished technicians. “And you know how harmful workplace gossip is.”

“Umm… Inspector Haruna, uh… what are you doing here?” Maya asked, trembling, as Hyuga rapidly tried to type out a message to send to Misato and Kaji in case they were caught.

“Oh, just wanted to find out what NERV’s elite bridge bunnies were up to.” Ryoma said, and Shigeru cringed. He had always hated that nickname. “When I pinged the MAGI, it conveniently told me you were all in your quarters. 6:00 PM is a bit early for that, now isn’t it? So I started searching, and lo and behold, the bridge bunnies are committing treason!”

“Wait a minute, sir, it’s not like that!” Aoba exclaimed, as Hyuga was busy trying to send his message. “We’re trying to do some research into Inspector Kaji, and your name came up in attachment to his!”

“Wait a minute, it did?” Ryoma asked, his anger currently abated by curiosity. Shigeru typed rapidly, finding the file he was looking for, then showed his laptop to the inspector.

“The two of you were roommates in college, and served together with the U.N. Security Forces for a while, right?” Shigeru asked, as he scrolled down the pages. He saw Haruna’s eyes narrow, then the Inspector huffed.

“I’ll go talk to the Commander about this.” Ryoma said, as he walked out of the room. He stopped at the doorway, and turned back to face the three technicians. “Sorry for the accusations. Don’t worry about a thing. Somebody's gonna pay, but it won’t be you.”

The three technicians lets out sighs of relief as Kushiel stalked off down the halls towards the technical wing, where he would find the NERV technician on SEELE’s payroll that was supposed to delete that data and send him on an all-expenses paid trip from the window to the ground, courtesy of the Angel of Punishment.

* * *

Misato dropped the small chunk of metal onto the tray, and pulled off the surgical gloves she was wearing. She quickly wiped off Kaji’s wound with some disinfectant wipes, and tossed them in the trash.

“And you’re now bullet-free, Ryoji.” Misato said, as she gave him a soft hug. “Make sure it stays that way.”

“I’d love to agree with that, Katsuragi, but I’m pretty sure that in our line of work, we’d both be lying to each other.” Kaji replied.

“Yeah, but you seem to have a tendency to be in the vicinity of bullets far too often.” Misato grumbled, as she helped Kaji up from the bed he had been lying on. She walked him out to the living room, where she sat him down on the couch.

“You need to rest.” she said, as she dropped a blanket on him. “I’ll be right back.”

Misato walked off into the office, and slid the door shut behind her. Kaji sat up, and shrugged off the blanket. He might’ve been hurt, but a short walk to the kitchen wouldn’t hurt him, and he was starving. As he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a leftover container of ramen that Shinji made a few days ago, a red towel caught his vision. He set the ramen on the table, then pulled the towel off and threw it in a basket.

The Philosopher’s Stone was cool to the touch, just like before, as Kaji picked it up and rolled it around in his hands. The lanyard looped around the Stone was slightly frayed in several places, and felt just as cool as the Stone itself. As Kaji held the stone, he tried to blink the exhaustion from his eyes, and suddenly found himself somewhere else.

As Kaji looked around, he recognized this place as the playground that he had passed on his way to the electrical plant where he had met Ryoma. He drew his gun, and swept his eyes around the place. It appeared to be in better shape than before, and the entire park was framed with the orange glow of dusk.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” a voice said behind Kaji. He turned around to see Ryoma, wearing a pair of U.N. military fatigues sitting on one of the swings. Kaji raised his gun to face him, but Ryoma just scoffed. “You can’t kill me, Kaj, you’re not really here, and neither am I.”

“What are you talking about?” Kaji said, keeping his weapon leveled at Ryoma. “Where are we?”

“Well, currently, you’re standing in the kitchen of your safehouse, but I don’t think that was quite the answer you wanted to hear.” Ryoma said, as he stood up from the swing. “Currently, your consciousness has fled into the Philosopher’s Stone.”

“Wait, so I’m… inside the Stone?” Kaji asked, and Ryoma responded with a curt nod. “So then how are you here?”

“Well, I’m not exactly Ryoma. I’m a portion of his consciousness. I got stuck in here when Ryoma got too close to the Stone.”

“Why?” Kaji asked, lowering his weapon somewhat, but still intensely focused on Ryoma.

“Oh boy, how do I go about explaining this.” Ryoma said, as he gestured to Kaji to sit on the bench beside him. “Ryoma spent the last three years as an assassin and special operative for SEELE. He was damn good at it too, and after a while, they decided to reward him.”

“Reward him? How?” Kaji asked, but Ryoma held up a finger to shush him.

“They decided the best thing they could do to reward him was to experiment on him. You remember the 13th Angel, the one that took over Evangelion Unit-03?”

“How could I forget?” Kaji replied. “It almost killed Misato, and the kids spent some time in the brig for disobeying orders and saving the pilot.”

“The Angel caused the EVA to grow an S2 Engine. A group of SEELE plants inside NERV removed most of it and had it shipped to Germany, along with a sliver of Unit-03’s core. After an intense medical procedure, Ryoma had both implemented into him. Naturally, this highly increased his physical attributes and gave him an incredible healing factor. However, this didn’t come without other affects. Bardiel, the 13th Angel, could still feel the piece of its shattered core, and began speaking into Ryoma’s mind. Over time, it began to wear him down, convincing him that he should bond with it, and let the two of them become one.”

“So Ryoma’s… an Angel?” Ryoji asked. He was following along, but this series of events was wildly confusing.

“Well, he wasn’t totally. At least, not until you recovered the Stone. Being in its presence caused him and Bardiel to regenerate, meaning that both now had complete cores and S2 Engines. Even so, Bardiel was wildly more powerful than Ryoma, and it was no issue for him to force his way into Ryoma’s mind and force the two of them together.”

“How did the Stone do that? What even is this thing?” Kaji inquired, finally putting his weapon away. If this spectre wanted to hurt him, it would’ve done it already.

“It’s an external S2 Engine, among other things. When humanity finally began to populate the Earth, Lilith was proud of her children, but was still afraid of their physical frailty. She created the Stone as an object that could be given to the most powerful of leaders, allowing them to weather the storms of life and giving them the comfort to rule over people benevolently.”

“Looking back at how bloody our history is, I don’t think that Lilith’s judgement worked out particularly well.” Kaji retorted.

“Be careful what you say, she can hear you after all.” Ryoma said, and Ryoji shivered slightly as he heard him say it. “Luckily, she agrees with you. Mankind’s corruption caused them to covet the artifact, and so Lilith had no choice but to influence one of mankind to hide it away forever. SEELE eventually found it, however they had no idea of the real power it held. They simply believed it to be a link to Lilith that could stand in for Adam, were they to initiate Third Impact.”

“Fantastic.” Kaji retorted witheringly. He was a spy, and a good one at that, but even he wasn’t cut out for all this ancient magic.

“Science, Ryoji.” Ryoma said, apparently reading Kaji’s mind. “This may seem insane and impossible, but there is no magic at play here.”

“So you said this is an S2 Engine? Isn’t that what lets the Angels recover from injuries?”

“Exactly.” Ryoma replied. “That’s why Ryoma, or Kushiel as he’s calling himself now that he’s bonded with the 13th Angel, seemed unfazed by any of the injuries you gave him. As long as his core remains undestroyed or the Engine stays intact, he’s effectively immortal. The Stone works in the same way, but it’s not required to be inside the body like the Engine is. In fact, the Stone is even capable of magnifying the power of the wearer’s A.T. Field.”

“Wait, so you were saying that when we got attacked in the apartment, that was my A.T. Field that blocked the bullets?”

“Well, technically it was Misato’s because she was wearing the Stone at the time, but I digress.” Ryoma said. “These abilities aren’t all that the Stone can do, but they are the primary functions. Do you understand everything I’ve told you so far?”

“Barely.” Kaji replied, honestly. “I’ll need to take some time to figure all this out, but the important parts make sense. Ryoma’s an Angel, the Stone is an S2 Engine, SEELE sucks, I get the picture.”

“Brilliant. Now I really need you to get back to that kitchen before your mind gets fried by the Stone.” Ryoma said, and Kaji felt his eyelids becoming heavy again. “The Dead Sea Scrolls may have been averted, but you’ve got a new Angel to worry about, and he might be more dangerous than the other two combined. You’ve got a lot resting on your shoulders.”

“You’re telling me.” Kaji mumbled, trying to keep his eyes open as long as he could. “Anything else you can tell me?”

“Not really.” Ryoma replied. “If you’re in here any longer the Stone is going to continue to work, and the human body isn’t meant to handle the amount of energy this thing can output. So go now. Next time we meet, hopefully you’ll be in a much better state then you are now.”

Kaji’s eyes opened, and he found himself back in the kitchen of the safehouse. He blinked, and felt that the Stone was freezing cold to the touch. He set it down on the counter, causing a small amount of frost to spread around it.

“Wait a minute…” Kaji said to himself as he started walking back to the living room. He should’ve been stumbling from recently being shot in the ribs, but he felt completely fine. He lifted his shirt, and pulled back a few of the bandages. The skin was completely smooth, without a single trace of the bullet wound that had been there a few minutes ago.

“Kaji, I told you not to get up!” Misato exclaimed, as she stormed into the kitchen. “You’re hurt, and you need rest!”

“Um, Misato?” Kaji asked, as she stormed up to him.

“Don’t Misato me!” she replied, as she angrily pointed a finger at him. “I know you think you’re Mr. Stoic, but you need to rest and recover.”

“Misato…” Kaji said, trying to get her to notice that the wound had disappeared.

“And why are you holding up your shirt in the middle of the kitchen like that?” Misato yelled, clearly oblivious to the reason.

“Misato!” Kaji shouted, as he grabbed her by the shoulders. She stopped for a second, looking like she was about to yell at him again, but she decided against it. He lifted up his shirt again, pointing to where the wound had been.

“How the hell?” Misato said with a gasp.

“I think you need to sit down for this one, Misato.

* * *

Chairmen Keele was by no means a peaceful man, but as the leader of SEELE, he felt it was important to keep a cool head in front of the Council. However, after spending fifteen minutes waiting for SEELE-11 and SEELE-12 to show up, his facade was starting to wear thin.

“Do any of you know of any reason why they might have been late?” SEELE-2 asked. “We’ve never once had someone late to a Council meeting in the last 15 years.”

“I do not.” Keele replied venomously. “And if they do not have a sufficiently good reason, I may be seeking replacements.”

“Oh, don’t worry!” a cheery voice echoed, as the SEELE-12 monolith flickered to life. “Mr. Tahara has a fantastic reason for being late!”

“Who is that?” Keele asked, faintly recognizing the voice. “You have no authority to be present for these meetings.”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong, Lorenz.” the voice said, as a few members of the council let out short gasps. Nobody had ever referred to the Chairmen in such an insubordinate manner.

“Reveal yourself.” Keel said, his voice suspiciously monotone, though beneath the facade of peace he was dripping with anger.

“Gladly.” the voice said, as the monolith flickered off, to reveal Hirotaka Tahara, the General of the JSSDF and SEELE-12, being thrown into the middle of the circle of monoliths. His face was bloody and bruised, and his fatigues had been torn in several places. Another figure followed him into the middle of the circle, and grabbed him by the back of his collar and held him up.

“I’m so glad I could meet with you all here today.” Kushiel said, drawing himself down into a mock bow, then tossing Tahara directly in front of the monolith marked SEELE-01. “I’ve really missed you.”

“What is the meaning of this, Haruna?” SEELE-05 asked, slipping into his native French.

“Change, Mr. Bretagne. You could also call it an ‘insurrection’, ‘riot’, ‘revolution’, or a ‘rebellion’. I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.” Kushiel accentuated his last sentence by stomping on the General’s leg, letting out a sickening  **_crunch!_ ** as the man screamed in pain.

“You cannot hope to undermine SEELE, Haruna.” SEELE-02 said, his voice full of anger. “You’re simply a mockery of greatness. You may be powerful, but you are not immortal.”

“I would disagree, Vladimir.” Kushiel replied, as he balled his hand into a fist. The General began to float from his position, until he hovered a few inches above the ground, unconscious, directly in the middle of the ring of monoliths. A haze appeared around Ryoma as he walked to the General’s side. Although it only lasted a moment, Keele recognized exactly what it was.

“An A.T. Field.” Keele said calmly. “So we are speaking to Bardiel?”

“Tsk tsk, so naive.” Kushiel replied. “Had I simply overpowered the Lilim, I would’ve been indisposed inside Terminal Dogma, piloting a useless shell on the surface. So him and I came to an agreement. We’ve bonded, he and I.” he said, as a ring of orange hexagons appeared around the General, pressing in on him like walls of force. “I… we, are Kushiel, the Angel of Vengeance.”

“No…” SEELE-03 said, his voice trailing off.

“The Fruit of Knowledge and the Fruit of Life, together.” SEELE-06 replied.

“An absolute being.” SEELE-04 whispered, cementing the fear that had been dwelling inside the hearts of each of the council members.

“Run. Hide. Send armies after me, if you like. It’s more fun that way. None of that matters” Kushiel said with a chuckle, as the walls of his A.T. Field continued to crush the General. “You gambled, gentleman, and you lost. Accept it.”

“You won’t get away with this, Haruna!” SEELE-02 shouted. Keel cringed; these men were supposed to control humanity itself, and here they were sounding like villains from Saturday morning cartoons.

“I already have.” Kushiel replied, as with a sickening **_crunch!_** , the General was flattened by the A.T. Field, and fell to the ground. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’ve got business to attend to. I’ll be seeing you all again very soon.” His image flickered slightly, then he disappeared.

As Kushiel left the hologram room where he had his council meeting, he surveyed the carnage he had wrought in the General’s office. Two security guards were hanging halfway out a window, while another was laying in the wreckage of a couch. Three more were laying on the ground, fist-shaped holes in their chests. Smiling to himself, he noticed a shock of grey hair to his left, and turned to look at Kaworu, who was crouched down next to one of the guards, who was still letting out shuddering breaths.

“It’s okay, Lilim. Sleep.” Kaworu said, as he placed his hand on the man’s forehead, using his A.T. Field to ease the man’s pain as he died.

“Since when did you care about the life of Lilim, Kaworu?” Kushiel said, as he placed a hand on the young boy’s shoulder.

“I always have, Ryoma.” Kaworu replied, as he stood to his feet. “I was created with a purpose; to initiate SEELE’s Third Impact. But I have spent every single one of the last 15 years hating that purpose. But I could not disobey.”

“You’re telling me that you wish these abominations of Lilith, that killed our father, tortured our brethren, and destroyed this planet are ‘worthy of your grace’?” Kushiel said incredulously. “They deserve to be butchered, slaughtered, and hung for their sins. Adam wouldn’t want any less.”

“I AM ADAM!” Kaworu screamed, his red eyes flaring with an orange tint. “ THIS ISN’T WHAT I ASKED FOR!” His shoulders sagged as he walked to the door. He turned back to Kushiel, one foot already in the door, and gave him a look of pure sadness.

“The Lilim may deserve punishment for what they’ve done,” Kaworu said sorrowfully, “but not like this. Not at the hands of a man like you.”

“There are no other men like me, Kaworu.” Kushiel replied.

“If this mortal shell has taught me one thing, Ryoma, it’s this: there’s always men like you.” Kaworu replied, as he shut the door behind him, leaving behind a bewildered 15th Angel.


	8. Whatever Sins We Do

**Chapter 8**

**“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.” - Lewis Carrol**

Kaji glanced at his watch again, frowning at the time. It was fifteen minutes past ten, which was supposed to be the meeting time. Glancing around, there was no sight of the man he was supposed to meet. Resigning himself to his beverage, Ryoji took a sip of the brown cola Ryoma had got him hooked on.

“Never thought I would see you nursing a non-alcoholic drink, Ryoji.” a gruff but warm voice said from behind him. Kaji turned around in his seat to meet the gaze of Kozo Fuyutsuki.

“Took you long enough, Kozo.” Kaji said with a wry smile, as he gestured Fuyutsuki to his seat. Not a few seconds afterwards, a waitress walked up with plates loaded full of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, setting them down in front of the two men.

“Fantastic service.” Fuyutsuki said with a raised eyebrow, as the man sipped his iced tea.

“Hey, there’s no shenanigans here, I promise.” Kaji replied. “I can’t cook to save my life, so I know almost all the restaurants in Tokyo-3. This one happens to have some of the fastest service, and considering that you’re a busy man, I thought it would fit.”

“I’m going to assume,” Fuyutsuki said, as he cut off a slice of one of his pancakes, “you didn’t call me here simply to have breakfast with me.”

“Aww, and why would that be?” Kaji retorted mockingly. “Are we not at that level of friendship yet?”

“Please.” Fuyutsuki snorted, “we both know that everything you ever did, including rescuing me, which I am grateful for by the way, was for your own agenda. Now, let’s get down to brass tacks before my bacon gets cold.”

“Alright, then. Inspector Haruna is a SEELE plant.” Kaji said, his sarcastic demeanor replaced by a serious expression. “He’s ex-Special Forces, and is trying to advance their Plan B scenario.”

“Interesting.” Fuyutsuki replied, as he poured syrup on one of his pancakes. If the man was shocked at all by Kaji’s statement, he didn’t show it. “Not altogether unsuspected, though.”

“Excuse me?” Ryoji replied, shocked at how well Fuyutsuki was taking this.

“We knew that SEELE needed a new operative after you ‘died’.” Kozo said. “The only surprising thing is that they’d be foolish to appoint him to the exact same position as their last spy.”

“Well, they think they hold all the cards.” Kaji said, as he took a bite of one of his slices of bacon.

“And what makes you think that they don’t?” Fuyutsuki said.

“The reason I called you here.” Kaji said, and he leaned over the table so Fuyutsuki could hear him. “I need to know I can trust you with this. If you can’t keep this from the Commander for the sake of your own conscience, then keep it from him as a favor for me.”

“Alright.” Kozo said, as he took another bite of his breakfast. “I promise you, Kaji, whatever this is, Ikari won’t hear a word of it.”

Kaji looked the man in the eyes, and decided he could be trusted. Pulling the top button of his tropical shirt off, he extracted the Philosopher’s Stone, still hanging on a lanyard, from around his neck.

“This,” Kaji said, “is one card that SEELE got too careless with.”

Kozo flinched slightly when he saw the stone, which Ryoji recognized as him being shocked. The professor was incredibly talented at keeping his emotions in check, although he showed them more often than Gendo, however the Stone had elicited exactly the response Kaji wanted it to.

“I would ask how you got a hold of it, but for my own safety I’d rather now know.” Fuyutsuki said, stopping to take a short sip of his tea. “I will ask, however, if you have any idea what that thing does?”

“What do you know about it?” Kaji replied. “And don’t lie.”

“Not much.” Fuyutsuki admitted. “Even SEELE isn’t sure. All we know of it so far is that it could potentially work as a stand-in for Adam or Lilith in case the embryo was destroyed or Rei perished. It appears to be linked to the Black Moon somehow, but we haven’t dedicated many resources to it. Gendo had me look into potentially acquiring from SEELE for the purposes of NERV, but apparently they don’t trust us with it.”

“That’s because it’s not just a rock.” Kaji said. “The Philosopher’s Stone is an S2 Engine.”

“Ryoji, what do you mean ‘it’s an S2 Engine?’” Fuyutsuki said, his face a mix of disappointment and confusion. “S2 Engines are organic organs that are found inside Angels, not magical rocks.”

“I thought you might say that, Kozo.” Kaji said, as he pulled out a knife from his pocket and slit his thumb. “Try not to stare.”

Fuyutsuki didn’t even hear the comment, as he did indeed stare at what was happening. The Philosopher’s Stone started glowing the slightest bit in Kaji’s hand, and suddenly his finger stopped bleeding blood, and instead a yellow-orange liquid seeped out slowly, covering the wound. After only a few seconds, the wound appeared to stitch itself back together, and the liquid absorbed itself back into his skin.

“That’s… incredible.” Fuyutsuki said, his veneer of indifference replaced with wonder. “How did you discover this?”

“That’s a long story.” Kaji replied, as he dropped the necklace back into his shirt. “One I’ll gladly tell you once we’ve diverted the end of the world.”

“So why did you call me all this way?” Kozo asked. “You’ve shown me the Stone and told me what it does, but I still don’t see how this has anything to do with me.”

“I need access to the MAGI.” Kaji said flatly. “Not only do I have the Stone, but I’ve supposedly kidnapped the fourth most powerful person at NERV, as well as two of the Children.”

“Children who are needed to pilot the Evangelions to protect us from the Angels.” Fuyutsuki pointed out.

“The Angels that come from the sky and shoot lasers are all done,” Kaji retorted. “but I think you knew that. Even you’re not dumb enough to think Ikari would simply let two-thirds of his Pilot corps just up and disappear without a fight if there was still a clear and present danger from the Angels.”

“The thought that he might just do that has crossed my mind, but you’re right. Evidently, you two know something I don’t.”

“Yes, and sad to say it has to stay that way for now.” Kaji said.

“I understand.” Fuyutsuki said, as he polished off the last of his breakfast. “So you need access to the MAGI for what, exactly?”

“To disappear.” Kaji said. “There’s so much heat on our backs, I’m surprised we haven’t been caught yet. Stopping SEELE isn’t going to be easy, and right now I don’t exactly have a lot of resources. A few minutes with the processing power of the MAGI and I can have flawless documents produced for me, Misato, and the kids. As soon as they’re safe, I can start hunting, and try to figure out how to stop them.”

“Stop them?” Fuyutsuki snorted. “Ryoji, I have no doubts that you’re talented, even extremely so. But taking down SEELE isn’t like faking your death. They’re entrenched so deep their vaults have vaults. Trying to find one is like trying to find a needle in a cornfield, and trying to kill one is like trying to kill an Angel with a handgun.”

“According to what I’ve seen, both of those  _ are  _ theoretically possible.” Kaji pointed out, and Fuyutsuki replied with a chuckle.

“My point being, what makes you think you’ll even have a chance at taking them down? You can’t just waltz into a top-secret base and shoot a member of SEELE.”

“I don’t have much of a choice.” Kaji replied. “If I don’t finish them off, the world is going to end. If I give up and run away and hide, the world ends. If I die trying, the world ends. I have to stop them.”

Kozo thought to himself for a moment, then let out a short sigh. “You saved my life, so I owe you a few favors. I can get you 5 minutes of unrestricted, unlogged MAGI access, but that’s it. If you get caught, I won’t be able to make up any excuses to get you out of trouble.”

“That’ll be all the time I need.” Kaji said, as the waitress approached with a smile and set the bill on the table between the two men. Fuyutsuki looked down at it, then looked up at the grinning face of Ryoji Kaji. “Don’t get cheap on me, Dodgson.”

“You and your stupid Western movies.” Fuyutsuki grumbled, as he picked up the bill.

* * *

Yazhua Zhan, as the Chinese Special Minister, had an incredible busy schedule. Which was why he loved to enjoy any free time he had in the best way he knew how; by sitting in his office, feet propped up on the desk, watching his favorite television shows with a bottle of gin. As he took the final sip from his glass, he grabbed the bottle to refill it, only to realize it was empty. He pressed the button to contact his secretary, who after a few seconds picked up the line.

“Can you get me another bottle of gin?” Yazhua asked. “I’ve gone dry up here.”

“Of course.” his secretary said. “I’ll bring one right up.”

“You sound… different than usual, Ms. Chen.” Yazhua said. “Are you alright?”

“Of course, I’ve just got a little cold. Be there in a moment.”

Satisfied with the response, Zhan settled down into his chair, diverting his gaze to a fantastic Mexican soap opera he’d begun binge-watching with his wife. As he did, however, he was totally oblivious to the small “ _ hurk! _ ” that emanated from the intercom as his secretary was knocked unconscious.

“Alright, breaching charges on my mark.” said one of the black-fatigued soldiers outside the door to the Minister’s office, as the rest of the squad got into position outside. “Hamada, you’re up.” One of the soldiers set his rifle on the ground, and dropped his backpack in front of the doorway. He pulled out a few thin strips of C4 connected by blast cord, and attached them to the door to the Minister’s office, then shot the first man a thumbs up.

“Alright, Johnson, Hamada, you ready?” the first man said, as the two on the left side of the door gave a quick signal to show they were. “Richter?” the man turned to face the soldier behind him, who gave him a thumbs up. “Alright, blow it!”

A massive  **_boom!_ ** echoed throughout the building as the office doors were blown to smithereens. Before the Minister could ever react, five soldiers in all-black were inside his office, shouting at him to get down. He did so, getting on his knees and placing his hands behind his head. Two of the soldiers stood behind him, rifles pointed at the back of his head, while the other three ran off to secure the building. As Yazhua sat there on his knees for a few minutes, he managed to get his emotions in check enough that he was no longer bawling in fear. As soon as he got himself under control, however, his gaze was drawn back to the door by the two soldiers behind him saluting.

“Ah, not the man I was hoping for, but then again when do things go my way?” Kushiel said, as he strode up the man sitting on his knees. He used the barrel of his assault rifle to tip the man’s head up to meet his eyes. “Name, if you please.”

“Yazhua Zhan.” he said, unable to keep the quiver out of his voice. “Chinese Special Minister.”

“Oooh, ‘Special Minister’, that’s perfect.” Kushiel said, as he slung his assault rifle over his back and pulled out a pistol instead, which he pressed under the chin of the Minister. “Here’s the deal: you’re going to tell me where the Prime Minister is holed up at, or I’m going to put a hole through your skull the size of Hakone.”

Yazhua shivered, internally debating about what the best situation to do was. Eventually, his cowardice beat out his patriotism. “He’s in the Party Capital in Shanghai. They’ve got an emergency bunker there.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard.” Kushiel said, as he placed his Desert Eagle back into the holster. “I wish all the people I interrogated were this cooperative! Come on, stand up Mr. Zhan, I’m not going to shoot you.”

Yazhua hesitantly rose to his feet, finally meeting the eyes of the man who had threatened him. “Who are you?”

“My name isn’t important. What is important, however, is if you remembered to pack a parachute.” Kushiel said, a sadistic grin crossing over his face.

“A… parachute… what do you mean?” Zhan said, utterly confused, as he looked at the man, thinking he had spoken incorrectly. Kushiel simply reared back, and twisted his body back to deliver a crushing kick to the Minister’s chest. The incredible force sent the man flying backwards through the window, and Kushiel made his way over to the wreckage of what had once been a wall-height window to watch the ever-shrinking speck that was Yazhua Zhan, until after falling a few dozen floors, the man vanished from sight.

“I thought you said you weren’t gonna hurt him, Ryo.” Richter Tomak said, picking up Ryoma’s assault rifle and handing it back to him.

“No, I said I wasn’t going to shoot him. Two very different things” Kushiel replied with a wink, then he turned his back to Richter and walked out of the office. Richter followed after him, but as they passed by the secretary’s desk, he caught a glimpse of something sticking out of one of the drawers. Opening it up, he pulled out a bottle of gin, and he smiled to himself.

“Hey, Ryoma!” Richter shouted, and the blond-haired man turned around to face him. “Why let a good drink go to waste?”

* * *

Kaji slid the door to the office shut behind him, his backpack on his shoulders. He held a massive bundle of papers in his hands; a bunch of forged documents, work visas, and birth certificates he had forged with the help of the MAGI’s incredible processing power. In fact, it had only taken him two and a half minutes to forge any documents he thought they could ever need. As he made his way out towards the living room, currently still poring over the documents, he unknowingly bumped into Misato.

“Oh, hey, sorry about tha…” he said, trailing off as he stared up at Misato’s bleach blond hair. “Would you hurt me if I compared you to Ritsuko?”

“Not a word, Kaji.” she replied witheringly. “Not a word.”

Misato stormed off to the bathroom again, and Kaji simply shrugged and picked up the papers off the ground.  _ I never realize she really cared about her hair that much _ , Kaji thought,  _ or maybe she just hates looking like Rits.  _

“Hey, Ryoji, what are all those?” Shinji said, as he walked into the living room just behind Kaji. He set all the papers down, then turned around to face the Third Child.

“They’re… ah dammit, there’s not much point in lying. They’re forged documents. We’re going to be getting out of Tokyo-3… for a bit.” Kaji explained, trying in vain to make it sound more noble than it was.

“You mean you’re running away?” Shinji said, clenching and unclenching his hand. “After all this, you’re just going to run?”

“Well, first of all, it won’t be just me, it’ll be all three of us.” Kaji replied. “And we’re not running. The kind of work I need to do before we can move against SEELE is hard to do when everyone and their mothers are hunting us down. So we need to lay low for a bit.”

“Oh.” Shinji said, thinking to himself for a moment. “I still don’t like it.”

Kaji stood to his feet and placed a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “I know you don’t, Shinji. And if I’m being honest, neither do I. But I can’t in good conscience keep endangering you guys. So we’re gonna take some new identities.”

“New identities?” Shinji asked, a slight look of concern on his face. “What do you mean?”

Kaji held up 4 passports, flipping them each open one by one. “Mr. and Mrs. Takamoto, their son, Akira, and the son’s girlfriend, Miyu Nakatani.”

Shinji took one of the passports, looking down at the face that stared back at him. It was clearly his, but everything about this document talked about another kid. Everything on it was completely fake, Shinji had to remind himself.

“It looks so real.” Shinji said quietly.

“That’s the point.” Kaji retorted, only to get an angry glare from Shinji. “Now, there are some other… issues that come along with fake identities.”

“Issues?” Shinji asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, seeing as you’re going to have to be pretending to be totally new people, you’re going to have to go back to doing what you would normally do as a kid your age.”

“Okay?” Shinji asked, clearly confused. “What’s so bad about that?”

“Well, you’re gonna have to go back to… back to… uh…” Kaji stuttered a little bit, only to see Asuka storm into the living room.

“What are you talking about, Kaji?” Asuka asked gloweringly. Kaji looked to Shinji, who did his best to explain it to her. She surprisingly seemed to be taking the idea fairly well, until Shinji got to the end and turned back to Kaji. “So, what is it we’re going to have to do again?”

“Well, um…” Kaji said, clearly defeated at this point. “You’ve gotta go back to school.”

“WHAT! NO WAY!” two synchronized voices shouted, as Ryoji shook his head in disappointment. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

“Fuyutsuki, you’re slipping.” Gendo said, as he moved one of his bishops into place. “A few years ago, I couldn’t have checkmated you this quickly.”

“Yes, Ikari, but you always won in the end.” Fuyutsuki said, moving a pawn forward. “Rather emblematic of how things always seem to go with NERV, hmm?”

Gendo didn’t reply, instead choosing to sit silently as he pondered his next move. Choosing to go on the offensive, he moved a knight into position behind one of Fuyutsuki’s pawns. As he let the slightest of smirks cross his face, he sat back in his chair to watch Kozo’s move, only to watch in astonishment as he deftly maneuvered a queen to checkmate his king.

“Slipping, eh?” Fuyutsuki said with a raised eyebrow.

“Well done, Professor.” Gendo conceded, as he replaced the pieces into their spots on the board. “My vision isn’t quite what it used to be.”

As Fuyutsuki let out a short chuckle, a quiet noise echoed from the hallway outside Gendo’s office. Gendo turned as well, and the two of them heard a few quiet  _ ping _ noises echoing out from behind the door. Faint as they were, they were clearly metallic, like someone had dropped a small piece of metal on the floor. Both men looked at each other and drew their weapons hidden beneath their coats. As they did, the doors opened to reveal Inspector Haruna, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, carrying his assault rifle in his hands. As he pushed open the doors, Fuyutsuki saw the bodies of the six Section 2 agents that were positioned outside Gendo’s office at all times laying on the floor, blood oozing from their heads. The two men pointed their weapons at the Inspector, who let out a short giggle.

“What a greeting, huh?” Ryoma said, as he flicked the magazine out of his rifle, causing a sharp noise to echo through the room as it hit the ground. “Almost makes it seem like you don’t want to see me.”

“Correct.” Gendo replied stiffly, still keeping his weapon trained on Ryoma. “All three of us know that you work for SEELE.”

“Actually, I don’t.” Ryoma retorted, as he inserted a new magazine into the weapon. “I work for myself.”

“You sound like Ryoji.” Fuyutsuki said calmly, maintaining his grip on the pistol. “Why shouldn’t we shoot you where you stand?”

“First of all, because it would be rude.” Ryoma replied, then let out a short chuckle. “Secondly, it wouldn’t work. And thirdly, because we have the same goal.”

“And what would that be, Inspector?” Gendo said.

“Elimination of SEELE.” he replied, as he tossed his rifle to the side and dropped his pistol on the ground, then began to approach the two, stopping at Gendo’s desk to set down a few small slips of paper, then he backed away and put his hands up. As Gendo and Fuyutsuki cautiously approached the desk, they saw that the slips of paper were photographs, showing three people they knew all too well.

“That’s SEELE-08, SEELE-11, and SEELE-12.” Ryoma said calmly. “All dead, at my hands.”

“How is this possible?” Gendo asked, a very slight tone of confusion creeping into the elder Ikari’s voice.

“I have certain… talents, Mr. Ikari.” Ryoma replied. “Talents that we could put to use, together. After all, don’t you want to see your wife again?”

Gendo immediately froze at this statement. Fuyutsuki saw the cogs turning in the man’s head, trying to weigh what had been presented so far. Surely Keele wouldn’t kill three of the members of SEELE to get an agent in, but it seemed too suspicious that he had even been able to kill them. But he knew about Yui, a detail that had been kept from almost everyone on the Committee, and even then they only knew she was in Unit-01, not that they were trying to bring her back. After only a few seconds, Gendo’s eyes meet the steely-gray of Ryoma’s.

“How?” Gendo asked, his voice portraying none of the emotion Fuyutsuki knew was warring inside of him.

“We’re going to destroy SEELE. Then we’re going to get your wife out of Unit-01.” Ryoma replied calmly.

“And how should we believe you?” Fuyutsuki inquired. “So far you’ve shown us nothing that couldn’t have been faked.”

“I thought you might say that.” Ryoma said. He raised his arms, crossing them over his chest, then let out a bellow that seemed to pierce through Gendo and Fuyutsuki’s souls, and the wave of pressure knocked them over. As they tried to stand back up, red alarms started blaring around inside the office.

“Alert, Commander!” a voice Fuyutsuki recognized as Maya Ibuki cried. “We have an A.T. Field registered just above Terminal Dogma!”

Gendo sprinted to the microphone, almost spitting as he grabbed it and shouted. “Is it an Angel?!”

“Pattern analysis is still working!” Makato Hyuga shouted. “We’re not… wait, analysis is confirmed! Pattern Blue, it’s an Angel!”

“Get us eyes on it!” Fuyutsuki yelled, keeping one eye trained on the man standing in front of him. The Inspector was still standing in the same position as he had been a few moments ago, arms crossed over his chest, his eyes closed.

“Cameras are now coming back online! Directing priority optics to the Commander’s office!” Shigeru Aoba yelled. After a few moments, the optic screen flickered, then turned on. Fuyutsuki let out a short gasp.

Unit-03 was descending the shaft to the LCL Production Plant, floating through the air. The thing seemed to appear totally undamaged, and a bright halo was glowing above its head as it slowly floated down the shaft. As they watched, the creature let out another earth-shattering bellow.

“Get Rei inside Unit-00 right now!” Gendo shouted into the microphone, but Fuyutsuki grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Are you sure? Why not send her to Unit-01?” Fuyutsuki asked.

“Because we can’t risk her.” Gendo replied, before tearing away to face the monitor. Although they had been talking about Rei, Kozo knew exactly who Gendo was really talking about.

“Rei is in position, and is moving to Unit-00! Estimated time to sortie, one minute!” Aoba yelled, as the Commander and Fuyutsuki sprinted towards the command center, leaving the smiling Inspector behind them. They ran for what was only a minute or two, but the two were out of breath when they finally arrived at the command deck in Central Dogma, just in time to see Rei plummeting down the shaft towards Unit-03.

“Unit-03 is descending too quickly! It’ll reach Terminal Dogma in fifteen seconds!” Makoto shouted, as he began typing away rapidly. The entire bridge crew watched in horror as the halo disappeared a few seconds later, and the roaring Evangelion Unit-03 hit the ground in front of the LCL Production Plant with enough force to crush a building. “Unit-03 has made landfall outside the Plant!”

“What is Unit-00’s time of arrival?” Fuyutsuki yelled, as the Commander simply sat down in his chair, trying to take it all in.

“About thirty seconds, sir!” Maya shouted back, as Unit-03 began tearing open the doors to the plant. Although the doors were massive, reinforced and locked with thousands of beams, it only took the berserking Angel a few moments to tear open the doors.

“The Angel has entered the LCL Production Plant!” Makoto yelled, as the rest of the bridge crew sat back in their chairs, watching the events unfold before them.

Unit-03 stomped over to Lilith, but instead of touching the creature and attempting to initiate an impact, it grabbed hold of something else.

“It’s trying to take the Spear of Longinus…” Gendo whispered, so quiet even Fuyutsuki could barely hear. It didn’t last long though, as he stood to his feet and yelled. “Rei, stop Unit-03 from acquiring the Spear!”

The only response that came was a hurried grunt as Unit-00 finally hit the ground, and sprinted into the Plant. Unit-03 let go of the spear for a moment, turning to face the rushing Unit-00. It let out a loud bellow, then raised its arms in front of itself in a defensive position. As Unit-00 deployed its Progressive Knife and swung a wide slash at the Angel, Unit-03 sidestepped it and delivered two quick jabs to the stomach, followed by a crushing uppercut that sent Unit-00 stumbling. As soon as Rei regained her balance, she held her knife out defensively as Unit-03, arms still up, circled her. She approached it quickly, making a feint and then a stab for the chest, but Unit-03 just as quickly grabbed Rei’s arm, then with a quick flick, stripped Unit-00 of its Knife, then delivered a quick two-fingered jab to the Unit’s neck. Rei stumbled back, sputtering for air, as the entire bridge watched in amazement.

“That’s… we’ve never seen an Angel fight like that before.” Makoto said, staring up at the screen. “Is it… boxing?”

“Why has the 13th Angel changed its fighting patterns?” Fuyutsuki shouted, feeling useless. The only thing he could do to help was stand up here and yell obvious questions.

“Sir, wait just a moment!” Maya replied, and she typed away for a minute. “These readings don’t make any sense.” she muttered to herself, but after another few lines of code, there was no doubt. “Sir, that is not the 13th Angel controlling Unit-03!”

“What?!” Gendo yelled, losing his temper for possibly the first time in public.

“Pattern analysis is a 97.7% match, but in terms of Angels that’s night and day!” Aoba yelled up to Gendo and Fuyutsuki, who stared at each other for a moment before looking back down at the long-haired technician. “Cross referencing this data with any previously known Angelic patterns… no hits! Wait a minute… there’s a compatible sample!”

“Where?” Gendo yelled. “What is it?”

“The matching pattern is coming from the Commander’s office!” Makoto yelled, as everyone turned to face him in shock. “Analysis complete, it’s a 100% match! Patching through visuals now!”

Everyone quickly looked up at the screen. On one side, Unit-03 was continuing to box with Unit-00, and Rei was clearly losing. On the other side, Inspector Haruna floated a few feet off the ground in the Commander’s office, papers and objects twirling around him in a dervish as the air spun around him. His arms were crossing over his chest, and his eyes were glowing with the same orange fire as Unit-03.

“Haruna is… an Angel?” Fuyutsuki said out loud. “That can’t be.”

“Why would SEELE send us an Angel?” Gendo replied, being the only one that heard Kozo’s remark.

A loud scream caused everyone to divert their attention back to the first monitor, as they watched Unit-03 grab Unit-00’s arm and, with a sickening  **_crack!_ ** , break it cleanly at the elbow. The creature then dropped to the ground, and grabbed Unit-00 by the wrists. It then swung the Unit backward, and with a massive kick, sent Unit-00 sprawling into the lake of LCL. Unit-03 turned back to the Spear, slowly pulling it out of Lilith. After a few seconds, the Spear came out, and Unit-03 stumbled a few steps back with it. Unit-00 had gotten up at this point, and the bridge crew could hear Rei’s gasps as she tried to keep herself conscious as she charged at Unit-03. The Angel reared its head back and bellowed, then shifted the Spear to a one-handed grip, like a javelin, then pulled its arm back.

“Rei, WATCH OUT!” Gendo shouted, but to no avail, as the creature let the spear fly - directly over Rei’s head, as it crashed into the mask of Lilith. Unit-00 didn’t stop however, but Unit-03 simply gave it a look of annoyance and batted it aside with an open-handed slap to the face. Lilith’s mask was splintering at this point, and Unit-03 let out another triumphant roar.

“Why would it attack Lilith?” Gendo mused, as he stared at the screen. However, the slightest bit of movement distracted him, as he turned his eyes to the second monitor to see the Inspector opening his mouth.

“Have you reconsidered my offer?” Ryoma shouted, then began laughing maniacally. Unit-03 followed suit, but Rei was trying to sneak up behind it while he was distracted. Unit-03 wasn’t bothered, however, as it turned to face the encroaching Evangelion. It grabbed Rei by the arm, and spun her around until it was holding her in a chokehold. Both Ryoma and Unit-03 let out wild laughs, then the Inspector turned to face Gendo, seemingly seeing him even through the camera. “How about now?”

“Ikari, you absolutely cannot be thinking about giving up to this… this madman!” Fuyutsuki replied, trying to drown out the spluttering chokes of Rei.

“If we don’t, it kills Rei and initiates Third Impact.” Gendo replied calmly. “We have no choice.” He pressed the microphone on his desk, then connected it to his own office. “What are your demands?”

Kushiel grinned, and then let Rei go from the chokehold. The entire bridge was filled with the sounds of the Pilot gasping for air, but soon it was filled with another noise. Unit-03 and Ryoma had begun laughing again, in terrifying harmony, as their cacophony of madness filled all of NERV.

“What have we done?” Fuyutsuki said, as he stared at both view screens in total horror.

* * *

And there it is! The end of Act One! It has been a mad and wild ride, writing over 30,000 words in just over a week, but I have loved every minute of it! I really want to extend my thanks to those of you who have supported and followed so far: Author0fntent, BluePoppet, Darkside69, and Glasrevin - your support by following the story has been a tremendous motivator to keep going! I hope everyone enjoys this chapter - one of the readers made the comment that there wasn’t much “Evangelion” in the Evangelion fic, so we remedied that with a nice final send-off battle between Unit-03 and Unit-00. Meanwhile, there’s still a whole lot of things to be answered in Act Two - What is Kushiel’s plan? What will happen to Misato, Kaji, and the Children? Is SEELE doomed? I’m really excited for the future of this story, and writing it has been an absolute blast. My dearest thanks goes out to all of you who have taken the time to read “Caesium”, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it!


	9. Some People Say We're Crazy

**EVANGELION - CAESIUM**

**Chapter 9**

**“We know what we are, but not what we may be.” - William Shakespeare**

_ 2 months later... _

The young boy let out an exhausted groan as he stretched. He hadn’t slept very comfortably last night, and he had school this morning. Letting out another drawn-out yawn, he put on a pair of dress slacks and a red shirt. This school didn’t have uniforms, but he still liked to keep himself somewhat composed. He made his way out from his bed into the kitchen, where his parents were sitting around the table, eating breakfast.

“Good morning, Akira.” his mom said. She had bleach blonde hair tied back into a ponytail, and she wore her work uniform.

“Do you really have to work this early, Misa… I mean mom.” he replied. He hated having to walk to school by himself, and if she wasn’t able to drive him, he would have to.

“You know how unpredictable her schedule is, Akira.” his dad said, wearing a suit and tie that matched his salt and pepper hair and short beard. He then leaned over to the boy, who bent down to hear what he was saying. “Shinji, I know this is still new, but you’ve gotta do a better job at keeping up the facade, even at home.”

“I’m sorry, Kaji, it’s just so hard to get used to.” Shinji replied, and Kaji leaned back in his seat and shot him a look. Misato, or Kiyoshi Takamoto as she was called now, was finishing the last of her bowl of cereal, but was giving him the exact same glare.

“Where’s As… I mean Miyu?” Shinji asked, quickly changing the subject.

“She stayed over at Chihiro’s house last night.” Misato replied, as she got up out of her chair and started washing off her bowl. “The two of them are riding together to school.”

“Oh, great.” Shinji muttered. “That means I have to talk to Chihiro.”

“Now, son.” Kaji said with a wink, as Shinji rolled his eyes and groaned. “That’s not a very nice way to speak about As… I mean Miyu’s friend.” Both Shinji and Misato shot death glares at Kaji, who had descended into a fake coughing fit to avoid making eye contact over him making the same mistake Shinji had.

“You know what, I’m just gonna grab my stuff and head to school a bit early. Maybe I can meet up with Kensuke.” Shinji said, as he walked to his room. As he was about to head inside, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned around to face Misato.

“Listen,” she said, “I know you and Kenuske were best friends before he moved to Tokyo-2, and now you ended up at the same school as him. But don’t you think it’s a bit dangerous to still hang out around each other? What if he accidentally lets something slip?”

“Please.” Shinji snorted. “Kensuke adores all this cloak-and-dagger spy stuff. He’s better than keeping it under wraps then I am.”

“Only if you’re sure.” Misato said, and Shinji gave her a quick nod. She let his shoulder go, and gave him a sincere look. “I’m off to work, but I’ll be done in time to pick you two up from school, okay?”

“Sure, okay.” Shinji said. “How did you and Kaji both end up getting such nice jobs?”

“That’s all thanks to the documents he made for us.” Misato replied. “And besides, his name is Hayato now.”

“Ugh, I can’t wait until we can stop all of this.” Shinji groaned. Misato just gave him a sweet look, then turned around and headed back into the kitchen.

“We’re off to work!” Kaji called from the kitchen. Shinji gave him a wave back, then started collecting his books to head to school.

“Having to learn geometry almost makes me wish the Angels were back.” Shinji grumbled, as he put all his books into his backpack.

As Shinji made his way through the front gates of his new high school, he was distracted from his thoughts by a young blonde-haired boy with glasses running over to him.

“Hey, Akira!” Kensuke Aida yelled, as he caught up with Shinji, matching pace with him. “Ready for that geometry test?”

“No way.” Shinji said. “Besides, Kensuke, you don’t have to call me by that name when it’s just the two of us.”

“What name?” Kensuke said with a wink that reminded Shinji altogether too much of Kaji. “I’m just chatting with Akira Takamoto, my best friend.”

Shinji rolled his eyes, and gave up trying to convince Kenuske to call him by his name. The two of them made their way upstairs, and set their bags down next to their seats. They looked around the classroom, which was mostly empty, and sat down.

“Where’s Miyu?” Kensuke said, a sarcastic tone in his voice.

“Oh, knock it off, Kensuke.” Shinji said. “She stayed over at Chihiro’s house last night.”

“Really?” Kensuke asked. “I never thought she’d be the type to befriend the Red Devil.”

“Well, she’s not the Red Devil anymore, Ken.” Shinji replied. As if to prove his point, two girls walked into the class; one of them had short-cropped brown hair with a purple ribbon, while the other had long, billowing blonde hair that was held up with two small clips. The two of them talked for a moment, before the brown-haired girl made her way to the front of the class, and the blonde made her way to the back to sit in between Shinji and Kensuke.

“Morning, stooges.” Asuka said, as she gave them both a smile. “Did I miss anything exciting this morning?”

“We just got here, so no.” Shinji said. “Unless you find Ryoichi and Yoshi getting into another fight in the hallway exciting.”

“Ugh, the couples here are so immature.” Asuka said with a huff, then she turned to notice Shinji giving her a look, one eyebrow half-raised. “What?”

“Immature relationships?” Shinji teased. “Tell me more.”

Asuka leaned over and flicked him in the forehead, then laced her fingers in between his. “You both know neither of us would have it any other way.”

“God, I never would’ve thought you two, of all people, would have gotten together.” Kensuke said, rubbing his temples. “I feel like I missed the end of the world or something.”

“Ask me nine months ago and I would’ve agreed.” Shinji conceded, and Asuka gave his hand a squeeze. “But, I am glad it did happen.” he said, giving Asuka a warm smile.

Before Kensuke could make another scathingly sarcastic remark, their eyes were drawn to the front of the room by the teacher tapping the whiteboard with a piece of chalk. Every student’s eyes in the room snapped up to look at the teacher, who gave them a little awkward smile.

“We have a new student today!” she exclaimed, as she looked out upon the faces of the bored, half-asleep students. “I think you guys will really like him!” she turned to face the door, and made a beckoning gesture.

A boy stepped inside and made his way in front of the whiteboard, and then bowed. Almost all of the girls in the classroom immediately began surveying the new kid. He was tall and handsome, with pale skin. However, the weirdest part was his white hair and red eyes. Shrugging it off as albinism, many of the girls gave him shy smiles while trying to figure out a plan on how to get this kid to notice them. He didn’t seem to pay any attention to them, however, as his eyes settled on the three children at the back of the room.

“Hello, I’m Kaworu Nagisa!” he said with a cheery smile. “I’m so excited to meet all of you!”

* * *

Asuka, Shinji, and Kensuke sat underneath a cherry tree on the edge of campus, their bento boxes strewn out over a red-and-white checkered blanket. The two of them had quickly absorbed Kensuke into their lunch group, as even talking to the person you love about your past life could get maddening after a while. Kensuke didn’t exactly have a consistent lunch group anyway, so he had been happy to join them, and Asuka surprisingly had no issues. In fact, the two of them had actually started to get along, as it seemed without Toji there to bicker with, Kensuke and Asuka didn’t really have much to argue about.

“So what happened to the rest of the Angels?” Kensuke asked, picking at a rice ball with his chopsticks.

“No idea.” Asuka replied, currently stuffing her face with Shinji’s home cooking. “All Kaji and Misato would tell us is that they knew that the whole threat of ‘Angels that need EVA’s’ was all over with.”

“What is that even supposed to mean?” Kensuke replied. “Are they trying to say there’s going to be more Angels, but they won’t need you guys?”

“I guess.” Shinji said, spearing a piece of teriyaki chicken with a fork. “I haven’t really heard much of anything about NERV since we left, just the occasional tidbits Kaji and Misato will tell me.”

Kensuke looked around, then after seeing nobody there, he said in a low whisper. “Well I have.”

“What? You have?” Asuka yelled. She was about to continue, when Shinji quickly wrapped an arm around her and shushed her. After calming down for a few seconds, she continued. “Why didn’t you tell us before, Stooge?”

“Because I didn’t know.” Kensuke admitted. “My dad gets really drunk every month or so, and usually he’ll start randomly spilling the beans about whatever is happening at NERV. I haven’t been around him for a few months, though, so when he called me last night I was a little surprised.”

“What does your dad do at NERV, exactly?” Shinji said, savoring his meal.

“That’s the interesting part. He told me that he had gotten a promotion two months ago. He was one of the lead Restraint Technicians, which meant that they helped work on the EVA’s armor. But when he called me last night, he told me that he had been promoted to the Head Technician on Evangelion Unit-00.” Asuka and Shinji both exchanged troubled looks, but they let the blonde-haired boy continue. “After prying him a bit more, I got out the reason: EVA-00 had been damaged  _ in combat _ .”

“What?!” Shinji hissed. “Is Rei okay?”

“Relax, Dad said she was perfectly fine.” Kensuke responded, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “But here’s where it gets more interesting. Dad is supposed to keep things locked up tight because of his security clearance, but he gets real loose-lipped when drunk, especially around me. So here’s the crazy part: _Rei_ _sortied against another EVA._ ”

Before the two could even react, they heard a cough from behind them, and turned up to see the new kid standing about five meters away from them. “I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I couldn’t find anyone else to sit. Do you mind if I join you?”

“Oh, of course not!” Kensuke said, as the other two stared daggers into them. Ignoring it, the kid reached out a hand, which was firmly grasped by the new kid. “I’m Kensuke Aida.”

“Kaworu Nagisa.” the boy replied, as he sat down on the blanket. He turned to Asuka and Shinji, and tilted his head curiously to the side. “And who might you two be?”

“Ah, I’m Akira Takamoto, and this is my girlfriend, Miyu Nakatani.” Shinji replied, wrapping his arm around Asuka.

“Interesting. I had never picked you out as the kind to lie…” Kaworu said, as the three stared at him, their faces masks of confusion, until the boy continued. “Shinji Ikari.”

Shinji twitched instinctively towards his backpack, where Kaji had hidden his handgun in a secret x-ray proof compartment in case of absolute emergencies, but then decided against it. If this kid was here to harm them, he would have done it already. “How do you know who I am?”

“Well, that’s easy.” Kaworu said, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m the Fifth Child.”

“Fifth Child?” Asuka asked inquisitively. “But there’s only three Evangelions, four if you count Toji’s, but that one was infected by an Angel and got decommissioned. Why would they need a Fifth Child?”

“For that, I’m not exactly sure.” Kaworu admitted. “I was never actually sent to NERV’s Tokyo-3 branch.”

“Well, why not?” Shinji asked, somewhat confused. “If you were capable of piloting an EVA, especially since we aren’t there anymore, why didn’t they take you?”

“It’s… complicated.” Kaworu said dejectedly. “It’s all because of my brother, I think.”

“You have a brother?” Kensuke asked. “What does he have to do with NERV?”

“Well, he’s the Commander.” Kaworu said, as the jaws of the other three dropped. “And he has been for two months now.”

* * *

“Paperwork is the worst.” Ryoma said, as he finished off a budgetary request that had crossed his desk. “I might just shoot the next person that brings me some.”

“That would be unwise, Ryoma.” Gendo replied. “You’ve already shot two messengers, which is, to my knowledge, a war crime.”

“Eh, they’re my employees.” Ryoma replied with a callous wave of his hand. “I’m allowed to kill ‘em if I want to.”

Gendo gave the new Supreme Commander a strange look, then returned to looking back out across Central Dogma. Ryoma had refused to take Gendo’s office, insisting the man keep it, and instead made the upper deck of Central Dogma his desk. This was where he sat most days, when he wasn’t busy threatening insubordinates or killing members of SEELE. Although they had burrowed in deep after his show with the Chinese Prime Minister, he had managed to find SEELE-10 and SEELE-08 hiding together in South Africa, and had brutally dismembered the two in a display that almost caused Gendo’s iron stomach to lose its lunch. That had been just over a month ago, however, and Ryoma had been currently stuck in the Commander’s chair for the past several weeks. He had insisted that the staff call him Ryoma, although his status as an Angel was in no doubt among anyone in the staff, and they all knew it wasn’t his real name.

“Have you made any progress on locating the Fifth Child?” Gendo asked, and Ryoma threw up his hands in a show of frustration.

“Not a peep. It’s like Kaworu knows I’m looking for him, and has managed to stay completely hidden. Even when he makes a charge to his bank account, which is absurdly large by the way, it happens in seven different cities across Japan at the exact same time, all for different prices and at different stores. He even managed to lock me out of watching that about two weeks ago, so I can’t do anything.”

“That is… unfortunate.” Gendo replied, keeping his hands inside his lab coat. After Ryoma took the position of Commander, Gendo had been assigned to the Head of NERV Science. The position still kept him as second-in-command, since Ryoma had refused to appoint a Subcommander, but Gendo didn’t particularly mind. Being able to spend all of his time working on the project with Unit-01 was much better than being stuck with all the paperwork from his previous role, and he barely lost any influence or power in the transition.

“It is, but what can we do?” Ryoma said, as he placed himself into the pose Gendo so often took at his desk. “How goes the Project?”

“Fairly well. It will take us another month until we’re ready to give the project its first test, but it should only require a few days after that until we’re ready for the main event.” Gendo replied, letting a slight smirk cross his face.

“Fantastic.” Ryoma said, as he stood up from his desk and stretched. “I’m going to go to the cages and inspect Unit-02, see if the new Dummy Plug is working.”

Gendo shook his head as the man shouldered his leather jacket on, picked up his rifle from beside his desk, and got into the elevator to the lower levels. Even though the man was the Commander of NERV, he still insisted on wearing his military gear and carrying his weapon all over base. This wasn’t unfounded, however, as over the course of the two months he had been in charge, several NERV employees had attempted to assassinate the new Commander. The lucky ones got a rifle round between the eyes, but the unlucky ones… even Gendo shuddered to think about how hard that was for the janitors to clean up.

“Gendo?” Ritsuko said, as she approached the ex-Commander from behind. The two hadn’t spoken much in the two months since Haruna took charge, and if they did, it was solely about the Project. “I brought you a coffee; you’ve been working for almost 14 hours straight.”

“Thank you, Ritsuko.” Gendo said, as he graciously accepted the cup. “Sometimes I forget how long it is that I spend here, working. Time seems to fly.”

“Unfortunately, it does.” Ritsuko conceded, as the two of them stared out over Central Dogma. “It’s been nearly two months since the incident.”

“Indeed. Speaking of, do you have any news from our project?” Gendo asked calmly. Ritsuko huffed, and brought out a clipboard.

“I have been working on it, and so far I’ve managed to affix 36% of the restraints to Unit-01, but…” she said, only to be cut off by Gendo.

“Not the Commander’s project, Ritsuko. Our project.” he said, and then she realized what she meant. She flipped through the papers on the clipboard, searching for the one that was hidden amongst all the rest, and handed it to Gendo.

“So far, it’s a bust.” Ritsuko replied flatly. “Kaji’s almost as good at covering his tracks as the Commander’s brother. We’ve gotten a handful of reports from all around Japan, but none of them turned out fruitfully.”

“So you’re telling me, after two months of searching with the power of the MAGI, you still have no idea where my son or the Second Child are?” Gendo whispered. Ritsuko took note of the fact that he didn’t refer to Shinji as the Third Child, but chose not to push it.

“Unfortunately, no. If Kaji faked documents, they’re completely flawless.” Ritsuko said. “They’ve disappeared.”

“Very well.” Gendo said. He had his back turned to Ritsuko, which typically meant their conversation was finished. As she made her way back to the elevator, she heard his voice calling out for him. “Ritsuko?”

“Yes?” she asked. He had never been the kind to break the silence.

“Thank you for the coffee.” he said, and a smile crept onto Ritsuko’s face.

* * *

After a long day at the office, Jiro liked nothing more than to simply go home and relax in his plus-size hot tub. However, as he stood up from his cubicle, the grinning salt-and-pepper beard of Hayato Takamoto that met him told him that his hot tub would have to wait.

“What do you want, Hayato?” Jiro asked, clearly annoyed.

“Oh, just a drink between friends.” the man said, shrugging. “We haven’t talked to each other over a beer in so long.”

Jiro recognized the coded words between the sentences, and gave the man he once knew as Ryoji Kaji a death glare. “This had better be good.”

“Don’t worry, it will be.” Kaji replied, as he put on his jacket. The two of them walked together down a handful of side streets from their work, making small talk until they arrived at a small downtown bar. Kaji took the lead inside, and the two of them grabbed stools by the bar where they could talk unaccompanied.

“What did you find, Ryoji?” Jiro asked, sipping on a cocktail that had just been poured for him by the bartender.

“Something big.” Kaji replied, as he placed a folder on the bar and slid it over. Jiro opened it, and looked at the pictures. A gruesome scene lay out before him; there were several bodies of what looked like security guards, piled together and on fire, laying behind a strewn mess of body parts and organs. Even when he had been a lieutenant in the Yakuza, he had never seen something as gruesome as these photos.

“What the hell is this?” Jiro replied, staring down at the pictures.

“That’s a photo taken in South Africa from a month ago. Those are the bodies of SEELE-10 and SEELE-08. Which means that there are only 7 members of SEELE left.” Kaji pointed out, as he took a sip of a soda, having kicked the habit of drinking months ago. He then picked up the photo Jiro was looking at and placed it at the bottom of the pile, revealing another photo. This one somewhat blurry, and it depicted a blonde-haired man in a leather jacket waving while standing on the steps of a plane. “And Ryoma Haruna was visiting the U.N. station in South Africa on the exact day that it happened. No way it’s a coincidence.”

“I thought that man worked for SEELE?” Jiro replied. “Why would he kill his masters?”

“Well evidently, something changed.” Kaji said, shutting the folder and sliding it back over to himself. “One of my sources says that SEELE hasn’t had a single meeting since the Prime Minister was killed in China.”

“And what kind of source could you have that would know a thing like that?” Jiro inquired, taking another drink of his cocktail.

“Ah, that’s a trade secret I’m afraid.” Kaji retorted, as he placed the folder back inside the briefcase at his side. “Point being, SEELE is being dismantled, and I haven’t had anything to do with it. Which means Ryoma must want SEELE out of the way for a reason.”

“Any idea what that reason might be?” Jiro replied.

“Not at all.” Kaji admitted. “But it’s a signal that we’ve gotta move against NERV sooner or later. Have you gotten any headway with the Kimuras?”

“Not much.” Jiro said. “The Yakuza are willing to help with manpower and resources; they’ve already lost a lot due to the crackdown on crime, and they know that overthrowing NERV will help bring back their trade routes. The Kimuras, however, don’t have quite as much to gain, and they’ve been picky. They want full immunity for past actions in exchange for their help.”

“Jeez, what a realistic request.” Kaji replied, hanging his head. “They’ve got dozens of drug charges, not to mention assault and battery, against their members all over the nation. Even if we do manage to take back NERV, do you really think we could flex enough muscle to get those charges dropped?”

“With the Yakuza on our side? Absolutely.” Jiro said. “The only issue is being able to ensure the Yakuza gets their trade routes back. A few thousand foot soldiers is a lot of resources, but for them it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the product they’re losing out on. If you can convince your contacts to turn a blind eye to their deals, I’m sure the Yakuza will be more than sympathetic to the Kimura's plight.”

“I never thought I’d see the day when Japan’s two biggest crime families decided to work together.” Kaji said, finishing off his drink.

“Well, it’s all thanks to you. There’s no territory to squabble over and no drugs to run if everybody is dead, Ryoji.” Jiro replied, ending with a short laugh.

“Well, let’s cross our fingers then and hope that NERV decides to keep the ‘killing everybody’ to a minimum for the time being.” Kaji said, as he stood to his feet to leave the bar. “I’m gonna go home and see my kids; you should probably do the same.”

“Kids?” Jiro replied. “You don’t have any kids.”

“No, I don’t.” Kaji replied with a wink. “But Hayato Takamoto does.”


	10. And I Would Say They're Right

**EVANGELION - CAESIUM**

**ACT 2 - Chapter 2**

**“I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.” - Jeanette Winterson**

“Alright, come in.” Shinji said, as he gestured for Kaworu to come inside the door. The grey-haired child obeyed, and Shinji led him to the kitchen table, where Kensuke and Asuka were already seated. Kensuke greeted Kaworu with a cheery wave, which he returned, but Asuka simply regarded him with a raised eyebrow.

“So, your brother is now the Commander of NERV” Kensuke said, as the two other boys took their seats at the table. “Still kinda hard to believe. Shinji’s dad didn’t seem like the type to give up his seat.”

“True, but why is he Commander?” Shinji asked, then he turned to Kaworu. “You said his background was all military, right?”

“Yes.” Kaworu replied. “My brother has spent most of his adult life in the military. I do not know how or why he has become the Commander of NERV.”

“So, are NERV the bad guys now?” Kensuke mused to himself. “To be fair, it is a super-secret organization…” His thoughts were interrupted by Asuka slapping him on the back of the head.

“Hey, Stooge, stop dreaming about spy movies and focus on the problem at hand.” she said.

“Alright, fine.” Kensuke replied. “So, Kaworu, do you know anything of what’s going on at NERV?”

“Nothing much.” Kaworu admitted. “I only discovered that my brother was Commander while I’ve been on the run. NERV has been sending agents after me. I thought it was due to my status as the 5th Child, but I overheard some of them talking a month ago before I shook them. Apparently my brother is searching for me, and wants me for some reason.”

“Well, there has to be a reason for it all, right?” Shinji said. “NERV must be up to something. We’ll have to ask Kaji and Misato about it.”

“Ask us about what?” a stern voice echoed out from behind them. The four of them turned to see a very angry Misato standing at the entrance to the kitchen. “And why is there a boy I’ve never met before in my kitchen.”

“Oh, um, well, this is…. this is Kaworu!” Shinji stuttered, and the boy in question stood up from the table and bowed before Misato, offering his hand to shake hers afterward.

“Kaworu Nagisa, Fifth Child. Pleased to meet you.” he said, shaking Misato’s hand.

“Fifth Child… wait a minute, you work for NERV?!” Misato shouted, as she came to a sudden realization.

“Well, worked, past tense.” Asuka said. “He never actually went to the Tokyo-3 branch. Apparently they’re hunting him down because he ran away from his brother.”

“Ah, allow me to explain this to her, Miss Soryu.” Kaworu said, as he guided Misato over to the table, where she took a seat, while Kaworu stayed standing. “I was chosen as the Fifth Children eight months ago. I stayed at the Third Branch in Germany for most of that time, but was kept secret from the Second. I only came over to Tokyo-3 about two months ago. When I did, there was a… spat between me and my brother. I ran away from him, and he has been searching for me ever since. I swear, I bear no allegiance to NERV or to my brother.”

“So, who is this brother of yours?” Misato asked, elbows resting on the table as she sipped a plastic bottle of water.

“His name is Ryoma Haruna.” Kaworu said, causing Misato to spew the water she was drinking all over the table.

“Misato, EWW!” Asuka yelled, jumping away from the table, as Misato shot her a quick apologetic look, before turning back to Kaworu with an irate look on her face.

“You’re Ryoma’s brother?” She screeched, causing Shinji and Kaworu to shy away from the sheer hostility in her voice. Misato pointed a finger at the grey-haired boy and turned to the rest of the kids. “This boy’s brother is an Angel!”

“WHAT?!” Asuka, Shinji, and Kaworu yelled at the same time, before the room descended into total madness as everyone started yelling at each. Kaworu, however, simply stood there and hung his head. He was hoping that he would be able to explain everything properly, but this argument was showing him that was a naive hope.

“Alright, that’s enough!” Misato yelled, and everyone stopped for a moment. She turned and pointed at Kaworu again, her eyes brimming with anger. “You have exactly a minute to explain why we should trust you. Not only does your brother not only works for SEELE, but he’s an Angel!”

“My brother is not an Angel.” Kaworu insisted, but as Misato tried to shout at him he simply put up a hand, gesturing for more time. “My brother is Ryoma Haruna. The person who resides as the Commander of NERV is not my brother. He is no brother of mine, not after what he has done.”

All of the sudden, the five people in the kitchen heard stomping coming through the house, until Kaji whipped around the corner, handgun drawn.

“What’s going on?” he asked, then he stopped to realize that there was someone in his kitchen he had never seen before. “And who is he?”

“I am Kaworu Nagisa.” Kaworu said, yet again raising his hand to silence Misato. “I am Ryoma Haruna’s brother and the Fifth Child, however we had just finished discussing the fact that I bear NERV nor my brother any loyalty. I swear to you, I mean none of you any harm.”

Kaji eyed the boy suspiciously for a few moments, before he put his handgun away and sat down. Misato looked at him wide-eyed, and when he turned to look at her, she immediately launched into a tirade.

“What are you doing?!” Misato shouted. “He’s the brother of the man who tried to kill you! The guy’s brother is an Angel! How can you trust him!?”

“Because, what he said makes perfect sense with what I just discovered.” Kaji replied, holding up a manilla folder. Misato stopped mid-sentence, then crossed her arms in a huff. Kaji took that as a signal to let him take the stage, and so he set the folder down in the middle of the table and opened it.

“Shinji and Asuka are already aware of this first part, however you two,” he said sternly, pointing at Kaworu and Kensuke, “are not. I want to emphasize the fact that, should any of this information get out, I will kill you. I am not joking.” The two boys nodded their agreement, and Kaji continued. “We were forced to flee Tokyo-3 after stealing an object called the Philosopher’s Stone. It’s an extremely valuable artifact that SEELE was going to use to start the Third Impact.”

“Why would they try to start a Third Impact?” Kensuke asked, but Shinji put a hand on his shoulder and gave him the  _ we’ll discuss this later  _ look. Kaji nodded approvingly, and continued.

“After we fled Tokyo-3, there was an Angel attack at NERV HQ. The Angel turned out to be Ryoma Haruna, who had just recently been appointed to my old position as Special Inspector. He took control of Unit-03, and fought against Unit-00. The rest of the details are locked up so tight even I can’t figure out what happened, so unfortunately I don’t know how that ended. What I do know, however, is that Ryoma somehow ascended to the position of Commander after the incident, while Fuyutsuki was sent into retirement and Gendo was demoted to sharing a position with Ritsuko. Ever since, he has been spending a significant chunk of NERV’s resources upgrading Unit-01 and Unit-02, as well as searching for ‘his brother’, a kid named Kaworu Nagisa.” Kaji finished his monologue, then took a short drink from Misato’s bottle of water.

“Why didn’t you tell me that last half before now?” Misato asked, shooting Kaji an angry look.

“Because I didn’t know until a few days ago, and I needed to make sure it was all true.” Kaji replied. “Kaworu’s story corroborates the information nicely. I do, however, have one question I need you to answer, Nagisa.”

“Of course, Mr. Kaji.” Kaworu replied. “What do you need to know?”

“Why did you run from your brother in the first place?”

* * *

Gendo stood behind a plexiglass plane, which was all that separated him from Ryoma and his subject. The two of them had been starved for leads on SEELE’s whereabouts, but they had just received a notice from one of their informants that one of the last SEELE agents in Japan was leaving from Tokyo-2 by boat. They had arrived just in time to place him under arrest, and had brought him back to the Geofront. Gendo, along with Dr. Akagi, simply observed as Haruna tortured and beat the informant, keeping him fully conscious while causing him massive agony.

“Don’t you think there’s something… wrong with this?” Ritsuko asked, her knuckles white as she clutched the clipboard in her hands. “It seems far too gruesome, even if he is a SEELE agent.”

“SEELE is a threat to the Scenario.” Gendo replied simply. “I have no sympathy for that man.”

“Even still, he’s a fellow human being.” Ritsuko said, watching as Ryoma fired his handgun into the man’s kneecap. The agent let out a scream, then began hurriedly talking in hushed tones to Ryoma. The Commander listened intently, then simply slapped him open-handedly, knocking him unconscious. The man wiped the blood off his hands with a towel, and then entered into the room with Gendo and Ritsuko.

“He was headed to Vladigrad. SEELE-03 is holed up there. I’ve got a location as well.” Ryoma said, slipping back on a pair of leather gloves he wore, and shouldering his jacket back on. “I’m flying out tonight, and I’ll return tomorrow night. Gendo, you are acting Commander until my return.”

“Of course.” Gendo replied. “Good luck with your mission, Commander.”

“Miss Akagi? I’d like to have Unit-01’s restraints at 50% by the time I get back.” Ryoma ordered, as he made his way out of the room. “I will see you in 24 hours.”

Ritsuko simply stared at the man as he left the room, whistling a jolly tune, and turned to face Gendo. “If he wants those done, I’ll need your help. I’d be lucky to get them to 45% by then.”

“Ah, yes, of course.” Gendo said, seemingly somewhat distracted. “I’ll be at the cages in one hour.”

“One hour?” Ritsuko replied with a huff. “Where have you got to be?”

“I’m going to return to my quarters.” Gendo answered. “I have paperwork that needs to be done.” He left in a hurry, leaving behind a bewildered Ritsuko, and he made his way to his room. Upon getting there, he booted up his computer and logged into his secret network. He pressed a few keys, and saw a new message was waiting for him. Upon opening it, a slight smirk crossed his face.

**_Subject: It’s him_ **

_ I found him. Shinji Ikari is attending Noyamano High School in Tokyo-2, along with the Second Child, and a former classmate of theirs from Class 2-A, named Kensuke Aida. I was unable to discover any more information before I was recalled, but here are pictures as proof. _

Gendo surveyed the pictures attached to the message. A handful were blurry photos of massive crowds, focusing on someone who  _ could  _ have been Shinji. However, it was the last picture that truly cemented the email’s message. It was a picture of two people laying under a tree on a checkered blanket, the boy’s hand on top of the girl’s. Although her hair was blonde, the girl was undoubtedly the Second Child, and even though he had grown out his hair and dyed it a darker color, the other child was clearly his son. He began typing a return message.

**_Subject: move_ **

_ Find their location and move to obtain. The Second Child’s capture is not necessary, but is highly appreciated. The Third Child’s capture is mandatory. Anyone else is expendable. _

He let a small smirk cross his face. For too long his son had defied him at every turn, refusing to bend himself to the Scenario. Now, however, he had something that he had never had before. Leverage.

* * *

If one good thing had come out of this whole mess for Ryoji Kaji, it was kicking his drinking habits. A few weeks ago he had still been dealing with the tail end of withdrawal, but by now he didn’t have an issue with it anymore. He had replaced alcohol with pop, thanks to Ryoma, and he hadn’t even wanted a beer for days.

_ If I had been drinking like I used to most nights, _ Kaji thought,  _ I might not be able to do this _ . Currently, “this” was being perched in a sniper’s nest about one hundred meters away from the house they had been staying in. After dinner, Kaji got a tip from Jiro that a group of Kimura gang members were mobilizing, and he had pulled a few favors to figure out that a splinter gang of the Kimuras was being paid off to hunt them down. Although they didn’t know by who, it wasn’t hard to suspect that either SEELE or NERV was after them. So Misato had taken the kids and bunkered down inside the house, and he had trudged up here with his rifle to keep an eye out for the night, and then they would flee to the forest in the morning. The nest had a great vantage point for most of the property, but he did have a blindside behind him, as the sniper’s nest covered his back. For that, however, he had the Philosopher’s Stone.

Ever since he had the conversation with Ryoma’s consciousness inside the Stone, Kaji hadn’t let it leave his side. He’d also been learning a few tricks on how to use it, thanks to the spirit inside. Although a normal human would require incredible levels of training to manipulate their A.T. Field to any significant degree, with the Stone on his side Kaji found it almost trivial to do. As he closed his eyes, he unfurled his A.T. Field like sonar, letting it extend and ping back to him. It was very similar to how bats use echolocation, but much more precise. After spending a few seconds observing his surroundings, Kaji was satisfied for the moment. He opened his eyes just in time for a squawk to emit from his earpiece.

“Do you have any movement?” Misato asked. “The kids are getting grumpy.”

“Nothing so far.” Kaji replied, setting his rifle on the bench next to him. “I just pinged the area and didn’t see anything within about three hundred meters of here, so we’re looking alright.”

“Okay, then me and the kids are going to go back to business as normal.” Misato said. “Stay safe up there, Kaji.”

She shut the antennae on the walkie-talkie, and turned to talk to the kids. They had already left the room, however, hurriedly dashing to get out of the tiny safe room. Misato rolled her eyes, and grabbed the duffel bag she had packed full of supplies in case they had to flee. She turned around and walked out the door, and ran head first into Kaworu.

“I apologize, Miss Katsuragi.” Kaworu said, as he stood to his feet and offered his hand to Misato to help her up. “I merely wanted to come talk to you about something.”

“Ouch…” Misato grumbled, rubbing her forehead. “Watch where you’re going. What is it you want to talk about?”

Kaworu looked back and forth, making sure the other three kids weren’t nearby, then he grabbed Misato by her wrist and pulled her back into the safe room. “During my time at the Third Branch, I showed a certain… aptitude to be able to manipulate my own personal A.T. Field, without the use of an Evangelion. The scientists there helped train me, and due to that I’ve developed something of a sixth sense for detecting other people A.T. Fields.” Kaworu paused for a moment, as he thought over what he said to make sure it was believable, then he continued. “Just a minute ago, I noticed that there was another strong A.T. Field nearby.”

Misato looked around to make sure nobody was watching them, then proceeded in hushed tones. “You remember us discussing the Philosopher’s Stone?” Kaworu nodded. “It allows people to magnify their A.T. Fields, letting humans control them kinda like the Angels do. That A.T. Field you detected was probably Kaji. He’s been using his A.T. Field like a sonar.”

Kaworu nodded again, not explaining that he knew exactly how to use an A.T. Field in that way, not to mention that he was exceptionally good at it. “That makes sense, Miss Katsuragi. I apologize for the disruption.”

“It’s no big deal Kaworu.” Misato replied. “Being able to detect A.T. Fields is a unique talent though. You’ll tell me if you sense anything dangerous?”

“Of course, ma’am.”

Misato smiled as Kaworu left the safe room, then buzzed Kaji on her walkie-talkie. She heard nothing for a moment, before a somewhat sleepy Kaji replied. “What is it?”

“Kaworu was able to sense you doing your ‘sonar’ thing.” Misato said quietly. “Apparently he was trained to detect A.T. Fields.”

“So not only is he Ryoma’s ‘brother’, which I know for a fact he is not,” Kaji muttered. “But he’s also capable of detecting A.T. Fields. Kinda suspicious, don’t you think?”

“Definitely.” Misato replied. “We’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Good, make sure to tell him… wait, I’ve got movement in the driveway.” Kaji said, looping his earpiece around his ear. Two black sedans rattled their way down the driveway, and their occupants began getting out.

“Looks like Kimura gang members, just like we suspected.” Kaji said, raising his rifle to his shoulder. As he did, one of the men reached into the car to grab an object Kaji couldn’t quite see. He peeked out from behind his scope, just in time to see the man pull out a long metal cylinder, with a green object at the head. He froze for a minute, and had just enough time to yell “RPG!” before the trigger was pulled, and the rocket raced towards the house.


	11. There's Always Love In War

**EVANGELION - CAESIUM**

**ACT 2 Chapter 3 (Chapter 11)**

**“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” - Leo Tolstoy**

“Kaji, what did you say?” Misato asked into the walkie-talkie. She had set it down on the bed while she grabbed a second emergency duffle bag, and had heard him talk, but hadn’t heard what he said.

“RPG!” Kaji screamed again, and Misato’s heart stopped. Before she even had time to drop to the floor, a massive  **_boom!_ ** shook the house. She was knocked off her feet by the tremor, and hit the floor with a loud thump. She stood to her feet as fast as she could, then grabbed her handgun from the bed and ran out into the living room. The kids had already flipped the dining room table over, and Shinji and Kensuke were sitting behind it, both of them armed. Asuka was keeping Kaworu’s head down in the kitchen, and she noticed Misato first.

“Misato, are you alright?” she shouted. Misato ran over to her, and hugged her tight for a moment.

“I’m alright. Did anyone get hurt?” Misato said, talking as fast as she could while still being understandable.

“Kaworu got nicked by something, but he’s alright.” Asuka said, gesturing to Kaworu, who had a large bandaid on the left side of his face. As she was reaching down to check out the wound, a sudden cacophony of gunshots echoed around them. She tackled Kaworu and Asuka to the ground, as the space where they were standing was quickly filled with bullets. She heard a few shots ring out from behind them, and she turned to see Shinji and Kensuke returning fire. Another burst of bullets quickly forced them out from behind the table, and they darted into the kitchen with everyone else.

“How many are there?” Misato asked, as she drew her own weapon.

“There’s… 8 left. Kensuke and I each got one.” Shinji said, breathing heavily. Kensuke had a reassuring hand on his friend's back, trying to prevent him from having a panic attack. Misato looked around for options, but didn’t find much. The kitchen and dining room only had one entrance, and it was being watched by the shooters. There was a window, but it led into a fenced-off backyard.

“Come on Kaji, we need you right now.” Misato muttered, wondering what her boyfriend was up to.

The first Kimura gangster never saw him coming, as Kaji used his A.T. Field to soften his footsteps as he sprinted around the edge of the property. He tossed his rifle to the side a few meters behind the gangster, then drew his handgun. He slid past the man, shooting him in the head as he snatched the rifle from his hands. The shot alerted the other gangsters, and two of them turned around to attack the newcomer to the fray. Kaji popped out from behind the sedan just in time to watch the two focused on him hit the ground, and he managed to catch a glimpse of two people returning fire from inside the house.

_ Well, at least I know the kids are okay.  _ Kaji thought, as he checked the rifle to make sure it was working. He pivoted to the other side of the sedan, and fired a few shots at the gangster with the rocket launcher. A shot to the leg brought the man down, and the rocket he had been trying to load into the launcher skittered to the ground at Kaji’s feet. Grinning, Kaji deftly kicked the rocket back towards the man, then reached out with his A.T. Field to try and ignite it. He was quickly met with success, as a loud  **_boom!_ ** consumed the sedan, and the gangster next to it, in a huge fireball. The remaining gangsters didn’t take kindly to this, and began unloading their rifles on the vehicle.

“Misato!” Kaji yelled into his earbud, not getting a response. He crossed his fingers hoping that she wasn’t hurt, and was just busy. “I’ve got them distracted! Take the kids and head for the hills.” He heard a quick affirmative buzz, and he turned his attention back to the gangsters. Although the Philosopher’s Stone magnified his A.T. Field, he still had to have the focus and discipline to control it. He might be able to block a few bullets, but stopping a wall of fully automatic fire was beyond even him.

“Flush him out!” one of the gangsters yelled, and Kaji grimaced as he heard them all fumbling for their grenades. Doing the only thing he could think to do, he quickly unfurled his A.T. Field, and then tried to fire without looking in the direction of the gangsters. It partially worked, as two of them went down with mortal injuries, but the other six were still perfectly capable of lobbing explosives his way. Kaji rolled to his right, and dove out of the way just as a few high-explosive grenades tore through what was left of the second sedan. He felt shrapnel raze his back in what would normally be a grievous wound, but luckily he was healing quickly. He crawled another few meters away, and propped himself up on his elbows while he waited for his legs to recover. He scanned back and forth, looking for the remaining gangsters, but couldn’t see them. He laid down on the ground, trying to stay awake, but unconsciousness was inevitable. He clutched his pistol in his hand as the Philosopher’s Stone drew him into sleep to help recover from his wounds.

_ I hope that was enough.  _ Kaji thought, as he drifted off into the land of dreams.

Misato emerged from the tent, wiping the sweat from her brow. When they had found Kaji laying in the grass by the house, his back had been full of shrapnel from one of the explosions. The Stone had healed him, but it hadn’t removed the scrap, instead healing all the skin around it. Kensuke, the only person in the group with a modicum of medical knowledge, had spent all morning plucking the steel and aluminum from Kaji’s back. She had left Kensuke in charge of him, while she left to check on the other three. They were seated around the fire; Kaworu and Asuka looked miserable while they sat on a log together, while Shinji tried to keep a smile on his face while he stirred something in a pot over the fire.

“Is everyone okay?” Misato asked, only to be met by an angry glare from Asuka.

“I, for one, am tired of being shot at!” Asuka shouted. “If I’m not in my EVA, I’d prefer to not get shot!”

“Asuka, dear, please.” Shinji said, clearly exasperated. “There’s not much we can do about it.”

Asuka huffed, but her expression seemed to soften a bit. Shinji turned back to the fire. He had been hearing Asuka complain all morning about last night, and although he loved her to death, he had to admit that it was starting to get on his nerves. Neither of them had been hurt during the fight, luckily, but the flight into the woods afterward had taken a lot out of them. The two of them had crashed the moment they had their tents set up, and had only awoken at about noon.

“Asuka, Kaworu, lunch is done.” he said. The two teens quickly jumped at the opportunity, and Shinji left to go let the others know while they dug in. He made his way to Misato’s tent, and opened the flap. Kaji was laying on the ground, wrapped in blankets, while Kensuke sat in a chair next to him. He looked up at Shinji, clearly exhausted.

“Hey, Ken, how are you holding up?” Shinji asked, as he pulled over the other chair and sat down next to his friend.

“I’m alright.” Kensuke mumbled, then he turned to face Shinji. “Just a little exhausted.”

“I know. Lunch is ready; if you’d like, I can stay here and watch Kaji for you.” Shinji said, patting his friend on the shoulder.

Kensuke looked like he was about to refuse, but he stopped himself. “Thanks, Shinji. It means a lot.”

“No problem.” Shinji said with a smile, as Kensuke got up to leave. Shinji turned his chair to face Kaji, who was currently lying on his side, his torso wrapped up in gauze. He looked peaceful, his face given a soft golden glow by dim light the Philosopher’s Stone was giving off. Shinji scooted a little closer, and held the Stone in the palm of his hand. The lanyard it had been hanging on was replaced a long time ago with a brass chain, but other than that it still looked the same it did a few months ago.

Shinji let the stone dangle around Kaji’s neck again, and checked his forehead. His head was still warm, so Shinji turned around and dampened the rag. Turning back around, he saw Kaji’s eyes flutter open.

“Where… are we?” Kaji asked.

“Um, we’re up in the mountains about three miles away from Tokyo-2.” Shinji answered. “You were in pretty bad shape, and even though you were healing, you had a bunch of metal stuck in you. Kensuke and Misato managed to get it all out though.”

“I feel like my head went through a blender.” Kaji muttered, as he sat up and shrugged off some of his blankets. The Stone was still dimly glowing around his neck. “At least I’ve got this thing.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Shinji said, as he grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to Kaji. The man took it and chugged the whole bottle in a few seconds, then set it down beside him. “Thirsty, huh?”

“You’ve no idea.” Kaji said, as he reached for another bottle. This one he sipped however, as he sat up to face Shinji. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Kaworu, Asuka, and Kensuke are eating lunch.” Shinji said. “Not sure where Misato is.”

“Some lunch sounds great right about now.” Kaji said, as he got to his feets. He grabbed a shirt from a pile next to him, but Shinji reached out and grabbed his wrist.

“Are you sure, Mr. Kaji?” Shinji asked. “Misato said you needed some bed rest, and I don’t want her to get mad at me.”

“I’ll handle Katsuragi.” Kaji said with a wink, as Shinji rolled his eyes and left the tent. Kaji slipped on a white t-shirt, and left the tent. The four kids were sitting at a picnic table by the fire, talking in hushed tones amongst themselves. Kaji reached out with his A.T. Field, and felt Misato a dozen meters away. He snuck behind her, as she was staring off out over the hills, and wrapped his arms around her.

“Hey, what are you… Kaji?” she said, as she looked back over her shoulder at Ryoji. “When did you shave?”

“What do you mean?” Kaji asked, as he reached up to grab his face, but the short beard he had been growing had disappeared, only to be replaced by the familiar stubble-covered chin. “Well that’s new.”

Misato didn’t say anything, simply drawing him into a deep embrace. “Don’t you ever put yourself in harm's way like that again, you hear me?”

“Misato, I’m fine.” Kaji insisted. She didn’t say anything, simply tightening her grip on the man she loved more than anything in the world.

Vladimir stumbled through the door, trailing behind a bloody handprint as tried to steady himself. His eyes darted around wildly, looking for a way out. Gunshots rang out in the hallways behind him, a familiar two-round burst signifying who it was that was chasing him. Moving as quickly as he could while injured, he fumbled with the handle of the doors to one of the servant’s quarters, but managed to open it. He was only able to take a few more steps before his legs gave out, and he collapsed on the bed.

More shouts and gunfire echoed from down the hallway, as Vladimir drew his concealed pistol from within his jacket. “Nobody…” he muttered to himself, “gets the best of Vladimir Kaganovich.” He pointed it at the door, waiting for someone to come running through. Suddenly, the din of gunshots ceased, and he let himself draw a wary breath. Could they have defeated him?

The silence was quickly interrupted by a quiet clattering sound, like plastic hitting the floor. Vladimir propped himself up on one elbow, still aiming his weapon at the empty doorway. His heartbeat quickened as he heard the quiet  _ thud thud thud  _ of boots on metal. After a few moments, a dark shape filled the doorway.

“Nice peashooter, Kaganovich.” Kushiel said, as he looked down at the aging Russian. “Was this really the best you had?”

“Just kill me already and get it over with.” Vladimir said, lowering his pistol.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Kushiel replied, walking into the room and standing over Vladimir. The man tried to move his arms, but felt himself being restrained by some invisible force, as the blonde-haired Angel let out a small chuckle.

“What are you doing?” Vladimir asked, as Kushiel pulled out a pair of handcuffs, handcuffing the man to the bed. The man walked over to the door, and turned around to look at the man who used to hide behind the label of SEELE-03.

“You’re going to be stuck here. No way to get out, no food to eat, no water to drink.” Kushiel said, his eyes flaring with anger. “You will spend every moment of the last few days of your life tormented by your sins. Good luck, Kaganovich.” He left the room, picking up the empty magazine he had dropped in the hallway. He could still hear the man’s screams echoing as he walked out into the cool air, head held high.

“They’ll pay for what they’ve done, Mother Lilith.” Kushiel said, as he took a deep breath. “They all will.”

* * *

This chapter is really short compared to the rest, but I couldn’t find a way to pack more into this without throwing the pacing for a loop. I’m also publishing this one early without being preread (Thanks to RedPoppet for doing all my pre reading for the other chapters btw!) as I’ve got some college stuff interfering with my schedule over the next few days, so I just wanted to get this one out while I had a chance. I’m also working fairly casually on another Evangelion fic that’ll take precedence when this one is finished, but it shouldn’t interfere with the publishing schedule too much. I’m hoping to have Caesium finished by the 26th of November (2020), but we’ll see where it goes. Thanks to all the folks that have read Caesium, and have left kudos!


	12. And Always Loss Along With Light

**EVANGELION - CAESIUM**

**ACT 2 Chapter 4 (Chapter 12)**

**“A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.” - Baltasar Gracian**

* * *

“It’s been a while, but we’re finally back.” Kaji said, as he maneuvered the car through traffic. “Tokyo-3 really hasn’t changed much since we left, huh?”

“I’m glad that it hasn’t.” Misato replied. “If it had, we might just have something to be worried about.” Kaji mulled that over for a moment, but chose to stay quiet. He looked in the rearview mirror, smiling as he saw Shinji and Asuka fast asleep, hands intertwined, while Kaworu was leaning against the window, dozing peacefully.

“I still just can’t believe how much hurt NERV has put them through.” Kaji muttered. “They didn’t even have a chance at a normal childhood.”

“Once this is all over, maybe they will, Ryoji.” Misato replied.

“Maybe.” he said, as he maneuvered the car into the parking lot. They came to a stop in front of an old laundromat, the kanji on the sign rusted so much they were almost unreadable. “Alright, you stay out here and watch the kids, I’m gonna go in.”

“Absolutely not, Kaji.” Misato hissed, grabbing his arm. “I’m not letting you in there alone.”

“Why not?” he replied with a wry smile. “It’s no more dangerous than working triple-agent at NERV, right? And besides, would you want to leave the kids out here all by themselves?”

Misato thought for a moment, then released her hold on him. “Just be careful, alright?”

“I always am.” Kaji said, and he got out of the car. He shouldered off his suit jacket, a necessary part of meeting with Yakuza enforcers, and opened the back of the car. He set the jacket off to one side, and got to work outfitting himself. He was what the Yakuza called an “actor”, which he was a temporary high-level enforcer until their contract expired. Because of that, he had to dress the part. He wore a red undershirt with white pants and a white suit jacket, with a ballistic vest under his jacket. He had his 1911 holstered at his hip, and had an MP5 submachine gun hanging on a strap on his chest. Satisfied, he gave Misato a quick kiss, and headed inside.

The laundromat was empty of people, but Kaji knew that didn’t mean anything. He made his way to the small desk in the back, and rang the bell three times. A few seconds later, a tall man wearing the same outfit as him, but with a black undershirt, came up to the counter. He led Kaji down a set of stairs, into a massive basement that spanned under several stores. As he followed the man, Kaji saw all the signs of the Yakuza preparing for an all-out war: dozens of men organizing assault rifles and filling magazines, blueprints of NERV HQ he had smuggled in for them being studied, and an entire table full of plastic explosives. After a minute or two of walking, the man finally reached a black door, and opened it up. Kaji walked through, giving a nod to the lieutenant holding the door, and entered.

The room was prepped for war, with arms and ammunition scattered all about. The middle of the room was taken up with a large table, on which the full Central Dogma blueprint sat. Three other Yakuza enforcers stood around the table, surveying the map, all dressed very similarly to him. Two of them he didn’t recognize, but the third he did.

“Jiro?” Kaji said, surprised to see the older man. “I thought you were just working as a liaison to the Yakuza?”

The older man shot the cleanly-shaved Kaji a smile. “I was, but they asked me to step back in and lead this mission. There’s a lot riding on this, and they trust me.”

“Alright, so how long until we’re ready to move on NERV?” one of the other men in the room asked.

“At least another week.” Jiro said. “We’ve got the last hundred or so men that need to get here, and we’ve gotta get some more C4. Plus, we need the access codes to the Geofront tunnels. How’s that coming, Ryoji?”

“I can have them by the end of the week, if that’s when you’re going to be ready.” Kaji said. “We can make our move on Sunday morning, they’ll never see it coming that early.”

“How are you planning on getting them?” Jiro asked, and Kaji gave him one of his signature glowing smiles.

“With a little B&E.”

* * *

There was a quiet whir as the electric drill yanked out the last screw, and Kaji pulled it out carefully. He picked up the vent cover and set up inside the vent, then carefully dropped to the ground below him. He wiped some of the dust off the front of his shirt, and started sweeping the office, taking him only a minute to make sure that it was empty. Satisfied, he made sure his surgical gloves were still in place, then sat down in Ritsuko’s chair and began typing.

He had called almost every favor he still had left at NERV, but luckily he had made it here without much incident. As he began the mining process for the access codes, he began browsing some of the other folders on the computer. Most were labeled with various other technological jargon, but a few of them were in plain Japanese. As he scrolled, his eyes fell on a folder labeled  _ activation_tests _ . He clicked it out of curiosity, and found an entry dating to only a week ago. He double clicked it, and it brought up a video file of the Evangelion cages. Ryoma was standing in front of Evangelion Unit-03, and was floating a few inches off the ground. He lifted his arms above his head, and as he did Unit-03 did the exact same motions. He heard a faint voice shout to remove the entry plug, and he watched with fascination as the empty entry plug was removed, causing the creature to shudder a little bit, but it then returned to following Ryoma’s movements, albeit slightly slower.

_ So Ryoma’s ‘Angel’ powers let him control an Evangelion without being in the entry plug.  _ Kaji thought to himself.  _ I was hoping the Evangelions wouldn’t get involved with this, but that’s what contingencies are for. _

A faint chime notified him that the program he had uploaded had found the access codes. He quickly copied them over to his flash drive, and began to log out of the computer. As it began to shut down, he heard a quiet scuffing noise behind him. Not even wasting a moment, he immediately drew his pistol and turned around, pointing it at the source of the noise.

Ritsuko Akagi stared back at him, her green eyes trained on him. He gave her a dopey grin. “Well this is awkward.”

She simply pressed the button to close the door to her office, and then crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”

“Just here to see you, Rits.” he replied. “What’s with the cold greeting?”

“Cut the bullshit, Ryoji.” she said. “You’ve got a shoot-to-kill order out on you right now, so you better give me a damn good reason not to call security.”

“Well, first of all, NERV Security is a joke, so that wouldn’t really do much except make a lot of very loud noise in this very small office.” Kaji pointed out. “And secondly, give me one good reason I shouldn’t shoot you.”

“Excuse me?” Ritsuko exclaimed, but Kaji cut her off.

“I have spent a lot of time digging into what you have been doing at NERV.” Kaji replied. Unbeknownst to Fuyutsuki, during his escapade into the MAGI to make fake papers, Kaji had set up a funnel in Caspar that was specifically set to be hidden by the other two, allowing him access to any document that passed through Caspar after that moment. “You’ve got a lot of sins to atone for, Ritsuko.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Ritsuko said, her face suddenly cast down, before she returned it with a steely gaze. “But everything I’ve done has been necessary to ensure humanity’s survival.”

“Survival, huh?” Kaji replied. “Is that what they’re calling the Human Instrumentality Project these days.”

Ritsuko’s face suddenly went as white as a sheet. “What… how… how do you know about that?”

“I told you, I know a lot more than I let on, and I’m not letting you get away with it.” Kaji said. He didn’t really know that much about the Human Instrumentality Project, but what he did know horrified him, and Ritsuko didn’t need to know he was half-bluffing. “You were one of my best friends, Ritsuko, but I’ve got half a mind to lodge a bullet in your brain right now.”

“I… Instrumentality is all humanity has left.” Ritsuko insisted. “If we don’t do it, SEELE will, and their plan is much worse than ours.”

“There is no more SEELE, Ritsuko,” Kaji retorted, “and you know that. You’re playing right into Ikari’s hands. You always hated Rei for being a puppet, yet you’re being Ikari’s puppet.”

“SHUT UP!” Ritsuko yelled. “I am not his puppet.”

“No, you’re even worse.” Kaji said angrily. “You’re a replacement. He’s just using you to hold by until he gets to be reunited with his precious Yui. And it’s all thanks to you.”

Ritsuko didn’t respond, instead just crumpling up into a ball on the floor. Kaji moved until he was under the vent, then looked back at her. “If you really don’t want to be a puppet, or a replacement, then do something about it.” He hauled himself up into the vent, and began putting the vent cover back on. He tried to ignore the sound of Ritsuko crying below him, but the whir of the drill couldn’t drown out the sounds of sobbing.

* * *

Rei Ayanami had no qualms with her daily routine. It hadn’t changed much in the past two months, with the exception of Pilot Ikari being absent, and although that was indeed regrettable, it was not a serious issue. As the entry plug vented all of the LCL, she quickly ran through her schedule for the rest of the day. Lost in thought, she didn’t even notice that there was someone standing next to the entry plug until she bumped into him.

“Hello, Rei.” Ryoma asked. “How was the test?”

“The results were in acceptable parameters.” Rei replied. Ryoma let a strange lopsided grin cross his face.

“Aww, always so formal!” Ryoma said. “Don’t you ever ease up?”

“No.” Rei replied abruptly. “I exist to follow Comman… Head Scientist Ikari’s orders.”

“Well, I’m the Commander now, so Ikari follows my orders.” he said. “And that means you follow my orders.”

“Yes.” Rei said, through gritted teeth. She almost never felt strong emotion, but this man in front of her caused her to be filled with a maelstrom of negative emotions. He was a bastard child of Adam and Lilith, an eldritch abomination that had attempted to kill her. Everything in her body screamed at her to kill this man where he stood, but the programming ingrained into her since the day she was born prevented that.

“I’d like you to follow me, Rei.” Ryoma said somewhat cheerily. “We’re gonna have a nice little chat.”

Rei followed him without a word as he set off. He attempted to make small talk as the two weaved their way throughout the corridors of NERV, but she responded to every question with as curt an answer as possible. After a while, she got the distinct impression that they were descending further, headed towards Terminal Dogma. Her impressions were confirmed when Ryoma led her into a familiar room.

“The Dummy Plug Production plant.” he said. “What a disgusting mess.”

“I do not understand.” Rei replied. “This room is up to standard levels of cleanliness and hygiene.”

“No, no, I don’t mean like dirt.” Ryoma said. “I mean the abominations in these tanks.” He gestured around at the dozens of naked Rei clones that floated around him. “Mother hates them, you know.”

“The way your mother feels is irrelevant to the Scenario.” Rei said aloud. Ryoma turned to face her, his grey eyes twinkling.

“Our mother, Rei.” Kushiel said. “You and I are both the offspring of Lilith.”

“No.” Rei insisted. “You are… wrong. You do not belong to her.”

“Not entirely.” he admitted. “Part of me descends from Adam, but it’s irrelevant. I belong to Mother Lilith, and because of that, I do her will. And her will was for me to bring you here today.”

“What is the reasoning for this?” Rei asked. Kushiel let another smile across his face, this one a wicked sharp smirk that could cut glass.

“So you could witness this.” he replied, as he unfurled his A.T. Field. Rei watched in horror as the clones in the tanks began to squirm and scream, and her skin crawled in pain as she felt Ryoma slowly seeking out each of their life forces, snuffing them out with as little as a second thought. For each one that died, there was a painful pang in her heart. By the time the last had been killed, she was in a ball on the floor, quietly sobbing from the raw pain.

“Mother Lilith hated those things.” Kushiel said. “Some kind of fake Instrumentality, being able to live even past death. She would much prefer the real thing.”

Rei didn’t respond, as she was too busy being in crippling pain to reply. Kushiel simply regarded her for a moment, before picking her up by the collar of her plugsuit and setting her down in a chair. Her head lolled to the side, but he simply pulled it back up, forcing her to look at him.

“Mother Lilith owns you. Don’t think even for a second that she doesn’t.” Kushiel’s words were full of venom. “For too long you’ve been disobeying her. Your loyalty is not to Gendo Ikari; your loyalty is to your mother, and your loyalty is to me.”

Rei simply nodded. “I… my loyalty is to you and to mother.” Kushiel simply gave her an affirming nod, and he began walking out of the Plant ahead of her. As Rei rose from the chair and left the Plant, her hands trembled just the slightest bit. She hated lying.


End file.
